Full text of "Electronic Games - Volume 02 Number 16 (1984-11)(Reese Communications)(US)"

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t Software

■

Computer Games 'Videogames • Stand-Alones -Arcades

1985 Educational
Software Preview

The Great
Game Designer
Talent Hunt

Get Your Kicks
From Computer
Football

TOUCHDOWN!

1|ll 70989 ,l 37860 11

1 1

Explosive
entertainment

If jumping out of the frying pan into the fire

is your idea of fun, MicroFun® has some of the
hottest challenges to your skill.

These games are dynamite. And we've got
the awards to prove that they give you the
biggest bang for your buck:

The Heist™ won the 1984 Outstanding
Software award from Creative Computing.

Boulder Dash™ won the Showcase Award at the
1984 Consumer Electronic Show.

Miner 2049er™ won the
1983 Game of the Year award
from Electronic Games. And
now Bounty Bob is back for
more heart-pounding adventures
inMiner2049erII™.

You need nerves of steel. A steady
hand. And fast responses. Or they'll
blow you away.

That's the MicroFun® trademark: more
fun than you can shake a joy stick at.

Find out whether you are one of the chosen
few who can make it to the highest levels of
success. Challenge one of the popular new
MicroFun® games — today.

You'll really have a blast.

All games are available for all Apple II's.

Most are also for Commodore 64 • Coleco » IBM • Atari

2699 Skokie Valley Road, Highland Park, IL 60035 • (312) 433-7550

■

■ mk

»«£»

1§5

***** -^

CONTENTS

SWITCH ON! 6

HOTLINE 8

READERS REPLAY 18

THE GREAT GAME DESIGNER HUNT 20

How software companies find — and keep — designers.

WHAT'S NEW IN EDUCATIONAL GAMES? 26

A look at the latest in learning fun.

TOUCHDOWN 30

EG's annual look at electronic football.

COMPUTER GAMING SECTION

ACTION ARENA 36

PASSPORT TO ADVENTURE 42

THINK TANK 44

ARTICLES OF WAR 45

ELECTRONIC PRESSBOX 48

PLAYING IT SMART 50

TRANSLATIONS 53

STRATEGY SESSION 54

ALL ABOARD 56

How computers keep railroads on the right track.

INSERT COIN HERE 58

ARCADE AMERICA 60

PLAYERS GUIDE TO PROGRAMMABLE

VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS 63

INSIDE GAMING 68

Trade Forman talks to Dan Bunten of Ozark Softscape.

PROGRAMMABLE PARADE 70

ALL-STAR QUIRKS 74

SUB HUNT. , 76

GAME OF THE MONTH 78

TEST LAB ;. 80

Q&A 84

STAND ALONE SCENE 86

READER POLL ....... 89

COMING ATTRACTIONS.. 90

ELECTRONIC GAMES (ISSN 0730-6687)) is published monthly except for February,
April, June, August by Reese Communications, Inc., 460 West 34th Street, New York,
NY 10001 . Second-class postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing office.
■&' 198^ by Reese Communications, Inc. All' rights reserved € under Universal,
International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction of the editorial
or pictorial content in any manner is prohibited, Single copy price, $2.95. Subscription

rates: 12 issues, $28; Canada. 12 issues, $32; foreign, air mail only, 12 issues, $64, U.S.
funds. Address subscription orders and correspondence to ELECTRONIC GAMES, P.O.
Box 1128. Dover, NJ 07801 or call {201 ) 361 -9550. Change of address takes 60 days to
process; send old address label, new address and zip code. All material listed in this
magazine is subject to manufacturer's change without notice, and publisher assumes
no responsibility for such changes. Printed in the U.S.A.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ELECTRONIC GAMES, P. O. Box 1128, Dover, N.J. 07801.

CAN YOU PEDAL HST ENOUGH TO
WIN THE GREAT MANCOPTER RACE?

ii- ?

Can you pedal fast
enough to keep your
human-powered copter
up in the air?

Can you dodge blade-
biting birds, strange
swamp creatures and
dastardly villains?

Can you keep your
copter from falling into
the mouths of hungry
sharks and giant squids?

Can you fly through
treacherous mangroves
and lightning storms?

Can you take all this
fun and frustration?

Then you're ready for
the great Mancopter race.

For Commodore 64,
Atari and IBM PC &PC/JR
systems.

a resisted

DabQofr

CHALLENGE

YOU.

Datasoft, Inc., 19808 Nordhoff Place,
Chatsworth, CA 91311 • Phone (818) 701-5161

By ARNIE KATZ

Arnie the Iconoclast

n this month's edito-
rial, I'm going to ex-
pose computer myths," I
told executive editor Bill
Kunkel. He was not im-
pressed. In fact, he looked
bored, maybe even hostile.

"Old hat," he sneered.
"60% of our readers already
have computers."

I countered that this still
left 40% in need of help.
"How can you let so many
precious readers — hal-
lowed be their names —
wander through the wilder-
ness of ignorance?"

"Let 'em wander," came
his verdict. "Most gamers
could use the exercise."

"I can hardly believe my
ears," I said, not believing
them. "Is this really Bill
Kunkel, guru of gamers
everywhere?" I shed one
small tear for the tragedy of
it all. He seemed unyielding,
but I sensed my stubborn-
ness was wearing him down.
Another hour of my best
salesmanship finally got him
to at least listen to my pitch.

I first attacked the "heavy

science" mystique by giving
my dazzling analogy which
compares the disk drive to
the phonograph. I stressed
obvious similarities between
a floppy disk and an LP.

I next explained my warn-
ing to prospective buyers to
try before they spend, and to
make sure that the software
they want is compatible with
the system.

"That's just common
sense," Bill interjected. I said
he might be right, but I also
insisted that gamers need
protection against under-
trained clerks who might dis-
pense misinformation about
the products.

Finally, I delivered the
coup de grace to the idea
that people will someday
program all their own soft-
ware. I mean, who bothers?
No one cuts a record every
time they want to listen to
music.

"What about the impact
of computer literacy?" Bill
asked. I then compared
computer education with
language training. Everyone

hob-
good
most

takes a language in school,
but how many adults are
fluent in anything but their
native tongue? The closest
most former students come
to Italian is ordering a pizza.
Similarly, only a few of those
who learn computer fun-
damentals will go on to pro-
duce significant work.

"What about the
byists?" Bill asked.

"Programming is a
hobby," I said, "but
don't have the time, dedica-
tion and creativity to com-
pete with Russ Whetmore or
Dan Bunten. Amateur musi-
cians enjoy playing, but no
one expects them to give
concerts at Carnegie Hall."

"So basically, you're go-
ing to say that computers are
easier to use and require far
less technical knowledge
than many might think," Bill
summed up. "Well, if you
feel you gotta. . ."

"Yup, that's my edito-
rial," I said with satisfaction.

". . . at least keep it light,"
he finished. I told him I'd try.

Volume Two, Number Sixteen
November, 1984

Editor
Arnie Katz

Executive Editor
fi/7/ Kunkel

Senior Editor
Joyce Worley

Features Editor
Trade Forman
Technical Director
Henry B. Cohen

Strategy Editor
Frank Tetro Jr.

West Coast Editor
David iustig

Midwest Editor
Rick Teverbaugh

Contributing Editors
Tom Ben ford
Steve Davidson
Leigh Goldstein
Charlene Komar
Wilt Richardson
Brian Scott

Editorial Assistant
Cindy Tannenbaum

Managing Editor

Louise Kc hi

-ABOUT OUR COVER.

The Buddha on our cover comes from Buddha-Gram, a New York
novelty telegram service. Buddha-Gram is run by Geoffrey Feldman,
49 W. 37th Street, NYC, NY, (212) 840-2423.

Art Director
Ben Harvey

Graphic Consultants
Creative Concepts

Illustrators

Phil Faglio
Duncan Eagleson
Frank Emmi
Mando
Michael Dooney

Cover Photograph
Tom Weihs

Director of Retail Accounts
Joseph Muccigrosso

Subscription Manager
Rena Adler

Circulation Assistant
Cami James

New York

National Advertising Director

Diane Mick

460 West 34th Street

New York, NY 10001

(212) 947-6500

Los Angeles
Advertising Director
Colette Kreim
413 South LaBrea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

(213) 857-0663

Chicago

Advertising Representative

Milton Cerber
1309 North Rand Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
(312) 253-7500

Advertising Coordinator

Angela Vttale

P-E6E
INCORPORATED

President and Publisher

Jay Rosenfield

Co-Publisher
Arnie Katz

Production Manager

Laurie Ann Devereaux

Production Assistant

Kayt Kirk

Circulation Director

William D. Smith

6 Electronic Games

CAN FIYING FEET AND FISTS CONQUER
THE EVIL WIZARD'S FORTRESS?

What's it like to have
the lightning feet and
fatal fists of Bruce Lee?

You'll find out in this
death-defying game.

You have to kick, slash

and punch your way
through an array of
deadly chambers. Where
the brutal Green Yamo,
terrible Ninja, exploding
bushes and other dangers
lurk.

Even if you survive all
that, the Evil Wizard is
waiting to do you in with
an arsenal of flaming
fireballs.

Destroy him and his
fortune is yours.

Now, have you got
what it takes to play
Bruce Lee?

For Commodore 64,
Apple II, Atari and IBM PC
& PC/ J R systems.

v DaUtyoft

CHALLENGE

YOU.

Datasoft, Inc., 19808 Nordhoff Place,
Chatsworth, CA 91311 • Phone (818) 701-5161

GAMES ARE HIS
'GUIDING LIGHT'

The introduction of 12-
year-old Jonathan Brooks
(portrayed by Damion Schel-
ler) this summer on the pop-
ular soap opera, "TheGuiding
Light," lived up to the excite-
ment anticipated, as this ma-
ture, somewhat lonely child
met up with some of the more
colorful characters of Spring-
field, the fictitious city in
which GL's action is based.

His work with renowned
computer expert-college pro-
fessor Quinton Chamberlain
(Michael Tylo) will eventually

Damion Scheller.

lead to a big surprise for the
confident Brooks. Also up-
coming are some interesting
confrontations with his host-
ess, the outspoken, child-like
Nola (Lisa Brown), Quinton's
wife.

Fw Hit

oq*r 1

liv 16 12 Ga«d» 25 11 Gialy 11 2
lr 71 29 Ually 31 41 Hoxie 18

SHADOWKEEP (TRILLIUM)

GAME INSPIRES BOOK

In a novel turn-around,
Spinnaker's role-playing fan-
tasy game Shadowkeep pro-
vided the inspiration for an
Alan Dean Foster book. Foster
is well-known for numerous
science fiction books, such as
Alien, The Spellsigner Series,

and the famous Star Trek Log
books. The motif of the novel
is provided by the interactive
game, which lets up to nine
players form expeditions to
explore a mysterious tower in
the Land of Legends.

HOME
SUBLIMINAL
SUGGESTION

Subliminal suggestion, the
periodic flashing of messages
seen only by the subcon-
scious, has come home after
being banned in movie theat-
ers across the country.

Stimutech's Expando-
Vision interface works with an
ordinary TV set and in-
expensive computers such as
the VIC 20, Commodore 64,
and Atari home computers. As
regular shows are viewed,
constructive messages are
flashed on the screen too fast
to be seen consciously. The
inner workings of our minds
are supposed to be positively
influenced by these invisible
prompts.

The eight programs avail-

able include weight and stress
control, athletic and sexual
confidence, and memory
enhancement and career/
success motivation. The last
two are designed to control
smoking and drinking.

Installation is easy, requir-
ing nothing more than a
screwdriver.

ONE IN FOUR

HOMES HAS

COMPUTER-USER

According to the latest
study by TALMIS, 25% of all
households in the U.S. contain
at least one member who uses
a personal computer at work
or school, and more than
20% of all families with chil-
dren have a child using a com-
puter in school.

INTERNATIONAL
EXCHANGE

Sales records accumulated
by the Electronic Industries
Assn. show that Canada and
Great Britain are the top ex-
port markets for American
electronic manufacturers,
with Japan, West Germany,
France and Mexico following
in the list of big spenders.
Countries from which the U.S.
imports electronic products
are led by Japan, followed by
Taiwan, Singapore and Hong
Kong.

The long-awaited MSX
home computers from Japan,
designed to be program-
compatible even though
manufactured by different
companies, won't be coming
to America this year. They'll
get their introduction to the
Western World in Europe this
Christmas. Sony, Canon, Fu-
jitsu and Sharp are just some
of the companies planning to
market MSX machines in the
USA early in 1985.

Meanwhile, Canada-based
Interphase Technologies is
responding to the Japanese
interest in Western-style
computer games by convert-
ing Sewer Sam and Aquattack
to the MSX standard for sale
in the island nation.

According to figures re-
cently compiled, home com-
puters are even more popular
in Great Britain than in the
USA. Roughly 7% of all
homes in the U.S. now have a
computer, compared with
11% of British homes.

Meanwhile, Acorn Compu-
ter Corp. has opened a U.S.
headquarters to explore the
American market, and made
pacts with companies such as
CBS, Krell, Intelligent Soft-
ware and Microsoft for dis-
tribution rights to games for
conversion to their Acorn BBC
Microcomputer.

8 Electronic Games

1983 WAS
RECORD-
BREAKING YEAR

According to figures from
the Electronic Industries
Assoc. , 1 983 sales of
electronic equipment reached
an all-time high of nearly
$144 billion, up 13% from the
1982 figure. Of this total,
computers and industrial
electronic products
accounted for almost 40% of
U.S. sales last year. Consumer
electronic sales were the hot-
test growth area — they jumped
nearly 20% over the 1982 level.

THE NAMES

CHANGE, BUT

THE FACES

STAY THE SAME

You can't tell the players
without a program in the pop-
ular name-changing game.
Sierra On-Line has changed
its name to Sierra, and in-
troduced a new logo — a cir-
cle containing a mountain.
It's featured prominently
on all products, which have
been repackaged to show off
the new moniker.

Children's Computer
Workshop has been retitled
CTW Software, which will
operate as a non-profit divi-
sion of the Children's Televi-
sion Workshop.

Counterpoint Software
changed its name to Spring-
board Software, saying that
the new name reflects the
company's intent to "provide
an educational springboard to
enjoyment and learning."

Dynatech Microsoftware,
recently purchased by its
founder Warren Shore, has
been renamed CodeWriter
Corpo ration with its
main line of business, the
CodeWriter programs that al-
low novices to design home
and business application soft-
ware using English language
commands.

Winner Paula Boge.

IOWA FEMME WINS
KRAFT KIDEO GAME CONTEST

Score one for the girls! The
grand prize winner of the
Kraft Kideo Game Contest is
Paula Boge, age 16, Dubu-
que, Iowa. Over 800 entries
were submitted by students
1 8 and under, each describing
a nutrition-oriented game
concept. Paula's entry helps
kids 3 to 8 iearn good health
habits by guiding the on-
screen hero Nibbles though
food choices. Overeat, and
Nibbles gets fat, slows down
and must exercise to return to
normal. Villains include Cavity
Creatures and Plaque Mon-

sters which can only be eluded
by brushing Nibbles' teeth.

Paula won a trip to EPCOT
Center /Walt Disney World
for herself and her family, but
opted to take the cash equiv-
alent ($4000) to buy a home
computersetup.

Second place honors went
to Michele Barr (age 12) of
Springfield, Va., for her con-
cept of a program that re-
quires the player to make
Vita-Man, the on-
screen hero, eat various
foods, exercise and get
enough sleep to score points.

ANNIVERSARY

This issue of EG marks the
third anniversary. The editors
and staff would like to thank
our loyal readers for keeping
the original magazine for
game-lovers on top of the
heap.

PITFALL HARRY
COMES HOME

"If you can turn on your
machine, you can program
Pitfall Harry into it," promises
David Crane, creator of the
popular character and author
of "Programming Pitfall Har-
ry". The folder, available for
25 cents from Activision, al-
lows anyone with a Com-
modore 64 to program a like-
ness of the famed electronic
explorer. The folder also gives
suggestions for adjusting the
animation, changing the
speed and fine-tuning the
color.

Copies of "Programming
Pitfall Harry" may be ordered
from: Activision Commodore
64 Club, P.O. Box 7287,
Mountain View, Ca. 94039.

SCARBOROUGH SENDS SOFTWARE TO SCHOOLS

Scarborough, in a cam-
paign titled "Be A Hero and
SoftwareASchool", is footing
the bill for software purchas-
ers to donate programs to the
schools and teachers they
designate. Anyone buying a
Scarborough program be-

tween Sept. 15 and Dec. 15
gets a "donation certificate"
to complete and return with
warranty card and $3.50
mailing fee; then the com-
pany sends the program cho-
sen by the customer to the
school selected.

Scarborough president
Francis Pandolfi explained
the giveaway program, say-
ing "Although a majority of
schools. . .have a least one
microcomputer. . .schools are
woefully ill-supplied with
quality software."

Scarborough programs in-
cluded in the donation include
AAastertype, Phi Beta Filer,
Run for the Money, Songwri-
ter, Picturewriter, Pattern-
maker and Laser Shapes for
Apple, C-64 and IBM PCjr
and Atari computers.

Electronic Games 9

SOFTWARE BEAT

THE THREE STOOGES (MYLSTAR)

THE THREE STOOGE5
GET OWN COIN-OP

Moe Howard, Larry Fine I
and Curly Howard signed
with Columbia Pictures in
1934, and in celebration of
this Golden Anniversary, Myl-
star Electronics introduced
the Three Stooges coin-op
game. The slap-stick com-
edians are locked in a room

STAR-BYTE TO
DISTRIBUTE
VICTORY
SOFTWARE

Victory Software has made
a deal for Star-Byte to take
over publishing and distribu-
tion chores for its complete
line of adventure, strategy
and arcade-style games. The
company, with over 13 pro-
grams in the fall line-up, has
disks and cassettes for the
VIC-20 and C-64, and digital
tapes for use with the Coleco
Adam. Games on tape retail

10 Electronic Games

for $19.95, disks are $22.95,
and Adam digital tapes are
$24.95. According to Waiter
Friedrich, spokesman for Star-
Byte, the company plans to
distribute a "reasonably
priced, complete line of quali-
ty entertainment and educa-
tional software for the home
market."

and must locate color-coded
keys to escape. Obstacles in-
clude Beauregard and Muffy,
and an army of billy clubbing
cops, as players man joysticks
to deliver slaps and throw pies
at the villains. The trio are try-
ing to rescue their brides from
a mad doctor, through 28
rounds that are sound-
punctuated with splats,
smashes and punches, plus
Stooge-dialogue such as
"Oh, a wise guy,", "Knuckle-
head" and others.

In keeping with the motif,
the coin-snatcher comes
equipped with three joysticks,
for one to three arcaders to
play simultaneously.

The Three Stooges were
vaudeville stars before they
signed to make movies. Their
careers continued until the
early seventies, although be-
cause of illness Curly Howard
was replaced in the Forties by
brother Shemp Howard (who
was one of the original vaude-
villian Stooges), next by Joe
Besser and then by Joe De-
Rita.

The software shortage for
the Adam is beginning to
ease, but don't look for a
quick end to the scarcity of
games which are specially de-
signed for play on the mod-
ular computer system. Coleco
should have data pack versions
of Donkey Kong and Donkey
Kong Junior in stores by the
time you read this, but there
are no definite plans for more
titles in this controversial con-
figuration. A spokesman for
the company points out that it
has published numerous
games on cartridge which are
compatible with the Adam as
well as the ColecoVision. . .

Trivia Mania (Professional
Software/Apple, Com-
modore 64, IBM PC, TRS-80)
tests the mettle of obscure
fact fiends in the categories of
science and technology,
geography, history, sports,
films and entertainment, na-
ture and animals, and film.
There are three levels of ques-
tions — the toughest is capa- .
ble of leaving even a master
of trivia stuck for the right re-

sponse. Up to eight players or
teams can participate. . .

Robert A. Heinlein, Ray
Bradbury and Arthur C.
Clarke are just three of the
notable science fiction writers
who are providing the meat of
a new line of computer
adventure games from Tril-
lium, a new Spinnaker divi-
sion. Scheduled for publica-
tion during the third-quarter
of 1984, the programs com-
bine extensive text with some
of the most sophisticated
graphics ever produced for an
illustrated adventure. Several
of the play-mechanics differ
somewhat from the usual
adventure game in that accur-
ately playing the role of the
protagonist is much more im-
portant than solving a string
of puzzles. In Michael Crich-
ton's Amazon, for instance,
the computerist must assume
the persona of an intrepid
field agent assigned to find
out what kind of catastrophe
wiped out an expedition to
the heart of the South Amer-
ican jungle. . .

A POLICEttftR BLOCKS 1
FAST. THIS ftftEft IS
FOR OFFICIAL BUSIHES

HOT SO
F LIMITS EXCEPT

AMAZON (TRILLIUM)

TYPING TUTOR SETS SALES RECORD

Having logged sales of
more than 200,000 copies,
Mastertype (Apple, Atari,
Commodore 64, IBM PC) has
become the best-selling edu-

mmm

cational game of all time.

Mastertype is published by
Scarborough Software, which
bought the title from its ori-
ginal owner in September
1983. The company plans to
bring out an enhanced ver-
sion for the Apple lie which
will contain five additional les-
sons which are applicable to
the Dvorak keyboard con-
figuration.

PITST0P1I.

WillMJiUHUtfiU 71

IS NOT A SOLO SPORT.

HIvN

When we introduced Pitstop,
we created action in the pits.
Now, with PITSTOP II, EPYX
introduces true competitive auto
racing, both on the track and in
the pits. Auto racing is not a one
man sport. With PITSTOP II,
you can now experience the thrill
of speed and competition as you battle your opponent in
a race against the clock. Now, more than ever, the strategy
of when you make a pit stop and your pit crew's speed
and performance, combined with your skill on the track,
will determine the winner.
A split screen shows you your position and that of your

opponent, a digital clock displays time and a lap
counter gives you your race position as you race
against each other in pursuit of the checkered flag.
You can also play against the computer and take
a practice lap or race against the computer controlled
pace car as you prepare for real head-to-head com-
petition. Step up to PITSTOP II because auto racing
is not a solo sport.
One or two players: joystick controlled.

EDYX

M COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Strategy Games for the Action Game Player

The battle rages over American cities and countryside.
Below, a live action sequence and the Alien Mothership.

LASER GAME USES LIVE ACTORS

Mylstar Electronics' new
conversion kit turns the
M.A.C.H. 3 laser-coin-op
game into Us vs. Them, a
science-fiction adventure.
Live-action film footage com-
bines with superimposed
computer graphics to create
near-movie effects, as players
assume roles of pilots defend-
ing the USA from alien invad-
ers. Actors take the roles of

frightened citizens and mili-
tary command personnel, as
the combat takes players over
San Francisco, Chicago and
Hollywood, as well as through
forest, mountain and desert
terrain. Arcaders have a joy-
stick to bank the plane side-
ways, shoot forward or back-
ward, and move in and out of
the game's depth perspective, j
through four different playing I

angles that include profile
views of the action and even
shots from behind the plane.
The secret of winning the
game is said to lie inside the
Alien Mothership, and players
can use additional coins to
continue a game. Special sound
effects, visual treats, orches-
tral score and even built-in
seat vibration make the illu-
sion of flight more realistic.

GOIN-OF BEAT

The distinctive feature of
Bally's Two Tigers is that,
though it can be enjoyed soli-
taire, it is also playable by two
arcaders working either
together or competing head-
to-head. Sinking a ship with
air power is the goal in the
one-player mode. Gamers
can elect to attack or defend
the vessel if two participate. . .

Cobra Command, from
Data East, is a play-for-pay
device designed to capitalize
on the current popularity of
super-helicopter movies and
TV shows. It challenges
would-be air aces to complete

10 dangerous missions which
range in location from the
skyline of New York to Eas-
ter Island . . .

WICO is producing Trea-
sure Cove, an electro-
mechanical gun game under
license from Stanley Levin &
Associates. The company,
best known for its coin-op

and home system command
control devices, has pre-
viously offered conversion
kits for rehabilitating existing
games, butthis is WICO's first
complete machine. . .

EG's readers in the United
Kingdom can expect to see
more visability from Konami.
The Japanese gamemaker has
established a U.K. subsidiary
in Middlesex, England, with
Kenji Hiraoko as managing di-
rector. . .

J&fUNl

CODEWRITER

CONTEST

OFFERS PRIZES

FOR ADVENTURE,

ARCADE GAMES

CodeWriter Corp. is
sponsoring a computer game-
writing contest, to run until
mid-1985. Prizes will be
awarded for the best original
adventure and arcade-style
games written with
CodeWriter's AdventureWri-
ter and ActionWriter, which
allow users to produce their
own software even without
programming knowledge, us-
ing English language inputs to
create interactive entertain-
ments.

The grand prize is an Apple
Macintosh computer and Im-
agewriter, plus $50 in soft-
ware. First prize is a 4-day trip
to Disneyworld for two.
Other prizes include Com-
modore 64 computers, Sony
Walkman cassette tape play-
ers, and software packages.
Additionally, the winning
games are to be marketed by
CodeWriter, and the authors
will receive royalty payments
for each copy sold,

CodeWriter programs are
available for most popular
home computer systems.

WHAT'S
HOT

Statistically-oriented box-
ing games are punching their
way into the hearts of
electronic gamers. Computer
Boxing (Sierra/PCjr, lie) is the
most sophisticated of a group
of recent releases which also
includes Ringside Seat
(Strategic Simulations/Apple,
C-64) and Computer Title
Bout (Avalon Hill/Atari com-
puters).

These games use statistical
analysis to reproduce life-like
actions based on the actual
abilities of real fighters, stored
on the disk. You can refight
classic matchups, stage excit-
ing"what-if" pairings or even
create your own pugilist and
take on all comers for the
world championship.

Now, who's going to be
first to apply all this lovely
programming expertise to
simulating professional wres-
tling?

12 Electronic Games

BREAKIN'MADE EASY.

fRwm

The hottest craze in the U.S. this fall
is Breakdancing, and you don't have to miss
it. Now anyone can Breakdance. Just grab
your joystick and control your Break-
dancer in poppin, moon walking, stretching
and breaking... all on your computer
screen.

Breakdance, the game, includes an
action game in which your dancer tries
to break through a gang of Breakers
descending on him, a "simon-like" game
where your dancer has to duplicate the
steps of the computer-controlled dancer
and the free-dance segment where you
develop your own dance routines and the

computer plays them back for you to see.
There's even a game that challenges you
to figure out the right sequence of steps to
perform a backspin, suicide or other moves
without getting "wacked."

Learn to Breakdance today! Epyx
makes it easy!

One or two players; joystick controlled.

BMggP—

epyx

m COMPUTE* SOFTWAf^

Strategy Games for the Action-Game Player

GAJMELORDS

INVADE THE

COLONIES

The top publisher of com-
puter games in the United
Kingdom is taking a whack at
the U.S. market. Through its
new American subsidiary,
Quicksilva Inc., Quicksilva
Ltd. has already begun
marketing some programs for
the Commodore 64 in this
country and will be expanding
its activities from its new
stateside headquarters in
Texas. Bugaboo and Quintic
Warrior are the first to reach
stores.

Quicksilva will also distrib-
ute a line of software from

HARDWARE BEAT

BUGABOO (QUICKSILVA)

Virgin Games, a subsidiary of
Virgin Records, the maverick
record label which gave the
world such acts as the Sex Pis-
tols and Boy George. The first
three titles in the line to make
their debut on these shores
are Hideous Bill and the Gi-
Gants, Falcon Patrol and
Space Ambush.

THE SPEEDEMON (MCT)

The SpeeDemon, from
Micro Computer Technolog- I
ies, lets Apple owners speed
up their machines. Games be-
come three times as hard
when they run three times
faster; utility programs, such
as word processing, account-
ing, and Visicalc also operate
at 3-1/2 times their original
speed. The speed-up card fits
into any Apple II computer,
and costs $295. . .

Okidata is offering the Oki-
mate 10 color printer that al-
lows printing in more than 40
shades, at 60 characters per
second (240 words per min-
ute). The Okimate 1 prints in
four character sizes, on plain
or thermal printing paper,
either single sheets or on
computer paper rolls. In-
dicators let the user know
when it's out of paper or out
of ribbon, and a special con-
trol even sets the darkness of
the print. The $239 letter-
quality printer comes with a
Plug 'n Print package that

contains connecting cable,
operating module, cartridge
ribbons, paper to get you
started, and programs to
teach novices how it works. It

OKIMATE 10 (OKIDATA)

works with C-64 and Atari
computers, and versions for
othersystems will be available
soon. . ,

GIM Electronics has an RF
Modulator that allows Apple

owners to connect their com-
puter to a TV screen. Until
now, Apple systems had to be
connected to monitors, but
The ARF set ($29.95), in-
cluding the modulator, a
computer/TV switch and 8-
foot shielded cable, permits
the use of either B&W or col-
or TV sets . . .

McPen, a high-resolution
light pen for use with VIC-20,
C-64, IBM-PC, IBM-PCjr and
Atari computers, sells for
$49.95 ($69.95 for IBM-
compatibles). It comes pack-
aged with software, either on
cassette or diskette, and pro-
vides vertical horizontal posi-
tioning on screen without
"fluttering". A sensitivity
control lets the user fine-tune
the pen to suit
the individual
whether he/she
uses it close to
or further away
from the screen
The pen plugs
into
the Mm *

joystick port, and boasts a
ready-light on the stand. . .
Continued on next page

STAY NEAT
AND STOW THE
CLUTTER

Stor-A-Bit lets computerists
keep the work station clear for

action by gathering all the
disks, cassettes, cartridges,
pens, pencils, rubber bands,
and other junk that accumu-
lates around the computer.

The smoked plastic holder
attaches to any solid surface
(like the side of your compu-
ter) with velcro strips, then
provides a convenient storage

spot for all the items needed
for a day's computer gaming.
Retailing for $9.95, Stor-A-Bit
is available at most computer
stores.

DISCWASHER
BITES APPLE

Discwasher's new Apple-
compatible peripherals and
accessories make the Apple \\c
easier to live — and travel —
with. The Discwasher Cari
turns the compact computer
into a fully portable unit. This
carrying case with built-in
rechargeable power system
hold the lie and all peripherals
and supplies. When fully
loaded with all equipment,
the Cari weighs about 20 lbs.
Made of durable nylon, it's

The Cari from Discwasher.

equipped with metal and
foam supports to protect the
Apple and monitor, and has
several storage pockets for
controllers, cords, etc. There's
even a shoulder strap. The
rechargeable power system
runs the unit up to five hours,
and also functions as protec-
tion from interrupted power
supplies by continuing to de-
liver current even if the wall
outlet fails. It even has a
warning signal so users will
know when power is running
low and it's time to recharge
the batteries.

14 Electronic Games

* ROBOTS OF DAWN.

BOOK BY ISAAC ASIMOV.
COMPUTER GAME BY EPYX.

Now, for the first time,
you can become Earth's most
famous science fiction detec-
tive, Elijah Baley. In this text
adventure, you're the hero of
Isaac Asimov's top-selling
novel, Robots of Dawn™

Travel to Asimov's world of the future in an epic
quest to discover the answer to the eternal question
. . .Who done it? On a planet where robots outnumber
people, try to learn who is lying, who is telling the
truth and, most important of all, who is the murderer.

The victim is a friend of yours, a famous scientist
who invented history's most advanced robot, more

human than machine. With this sophisticated robot at
your side, you piece together elusive clues scattered
across a hostile planet whose government is deter-
mined to do you in. Can you stay on the case? Can
you solve the mystery? Who do you trust? Your
success depends on the answer.

Asimov created the story. We created the game.
Now you can live it.

One player.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Strategy Games for the Action-Game Player

HARDWARE BRAT

The Electra Guard 3 surge
protector, $18.95, guards
electronic equipment from
power surges up to 6,000
volts, and also filters electron-
ic noise. A red light tells the
computer owner it's on.

Keeping computer systems
operating properly requires
housecleaning at regular in-
tervals. Floppiclene is a com-
pletely disposable wet/dry
cleaning system that main-
tains disk drive heads by
eliminating contaminants. It
comes in a binder that con-
tains 20 cleaning disks, aero-
sol cleaning solution, an easy-
insert jacket, and absorbant
wipes, for $34.95. A $19.95
Floppiclene kit contains clean-
ing solution, easy-insert jack-
et and 10 cleaning disks.

CHINA EXPORTS

Cullinet Software, West-
wood, Mass., has received
permission to sell software in
China. Distribution rights
were granted to Cullinet by
the China Computer Tech-
nical Service Corp., of the
Chinese Ministry of Electro-
nics, making this the first soft-
ware company to obtain such
an agreement. Cullinet makes
software for mainframe and
IBM personal computers.

AT&T LAUNCHES
COMPUTER

American Telephone &
Telegraph unveiled its new
PC 6300, an IBM-compatible
personal computer which the
company says operates up to
80% faster than the IBM-PC.
Said to be "almost com-
pletely" software-compatible
to the IBM machine, the
AT&T 6300 sells for $2745
complete with dual disk drive.
Company spokesmen say the
new machine "offers more
capacity for future expansion
and a better display screen"
than the IBM-PC. Q

16 Electronic Games

EG Readers Pick
Their Favorite Games

Popular Videogame Cartridges

isition

Times

This

Last

Month

List

Game Title

System

Manufacturer

Pitfall! II

Atari 2600

Activision

Miner 2049er

ColecoVision

MicroLab

—

Advanced Dungeons

& Dragons

I ntelli vision

Mattel

River Raid

Atari 2600

Activision

Pitfall!

Atari 2600

Activision

Mr. Do!

ColecoVision

Coleco

New

Super Action
Baseball

ColecoVision

Coleco

—

Donkey Kong

ColecoVision

Coleco

Zaxxon

ColecoVision

Coleco

Space Shuttle

Atari 2600

Activision

Decathlon

Atari 2600

Activision

—

Baseball

Atari 5200

Atari

Ms. Pac Man

Atari 2600

Atari

New

Pengo

Atari 5200

Atari

Centipede

Atari 5200

Atari

AAost Popular Coin-Op Videogames

Position Times

This

Last On

Month

Month List Game

Manufacturer

1 6 Dragon's Lair

Starcom

2 7 Star Wars

Atari

5 3 MACK 3

Mylstar

6 3 Track & Field

Konami

New New Space Ace

Starcom

10 3 Pole Position II

Atari

New New Spy Hunter

Bally/Midway

New New Firefox

Atari

3 10 Pole Position

Atari

New 15 Ms. Pac Man

Bally/Midway

The man who becomes a
monster has just become a
software game.

Commodore introduces
QUESTPROBE™ a series
of adventures that begin
where comics leave off,
starring your favorite
Super Heroes 1 ." Like the
Hulk™ And Spiderman™
(He's next.)

Now you can do more
than follow the Hulk's
adventures, you can live them.
On your Commodore 64™ or
the new Commodore PLUS/4! M
Command the intellect of Dr.
Robert Bruce Banner (the man).
Harness the fury of the Hulk (the

monster). Use every bit of logic,
reason, imagination and cunning
you possess (this is why educa-
tors like this series) to unlock the
mystery of the chief examiner
and his strength sapping door.

We couldn't have captured
the Hulk without the help of
Marvel Comics™ and Scott
Adams of Adventures
International.
But a puny human like you
can pick up the Hulk all by
yourself at any software
store. (It's just a diskette.)
And while you're there
look at all the other
Commodore software pro-
grams for fun and profit,
home, business and monkey
business.

You'll see why Commodore is
quickly becoming a software giant.

COMMODORE

Trademark of Marvel Comics Group

ADAMITES UNITE

The September issue of EG had a
letter which really degraded the
ADAM computer. In my opinion, the
ADAM is an excellent computer that's
well worth the price. I own one and am
having no problems with it. If my com-
puter were to break down suddenly,
all I would have to do to get it repaired
would be to call Coleco and find out
the address of the nearest service cen-
ter. Honeywell is now an authorized
service center, and combined with
Coleco's new six-month warranty, it's
a hard combination to beat. Most
other computer companies only offer
three-month protection, which shows
the consumer Coleco's confidence in
its new ADAM system.

I am very satisfied with my ADAM
and hope that it will be given a fair
chance in the ever-expanding compu-
ter market.

Jeff Kramer
Pembroke Pines, FL

I've had enough! After reading the
September issue (the letters from Ben
Stein and David Lenske), I've come to
the conclusion that most people are
just bad-mouthing a really fine com-
puter. After the Christmas rush was
over, Coleco cleaned up its act and
revised the entire ADAM line. The
ADAMs put out after March have
much better documentation, and are
not laden with defects. I know five
people other than myself who bought
an ADAM within the last three months
and have had no problems what-
soever.

There is another point I'd like to
make. The Data Storage Drive was not
meant to compete with floppy disk
drives, but to bean improvement over

18 Electronic Games

conventional tape drives. In this re-
spect, it's a tremendous improvement.
Quite a few companies are already
selling games and programs on Digital
Data Packs, and the list grows longer
all the time. ColecoVision cartridges
will be around for quite some time,
and once a disk drive comes out, the
major companies will definitely sup-
port the ADAM system.

I leave you with this to ponder on:
When the Commodore 64 first hit the
market, stores across the country had
thousands of them that were de-
fective. Irregardless, the C-64 has
gone on to become one of the hottest-
selling computers in the country.

Give ADAM a break.

Michael J. Gratis Sr.
Buzzards Bay, MA

Ed: Whoa, Jeff and Mike, let's not
degenerate into name-calling. Those

September letter writers were cer-
tainly as sincere about their gripes as
you are about your praise. Since your
personal experiences with the Adam
differ greatly, it's not surprising that
you've developed divergent view-
points. There's a lot to like — and
dislike — about the Adam, and it's this
kind of exchange of lively reasonable
opinions that will ultimately help the
electronic gaming field make up its
collective mind about this highly con-
troversial micro.

7800 ALREADY GONE?

Your article about Atari's 7800
looked great. But Newsweek's July
15th issue paints a completely differ-
ent picture.

Jack Tramiel, formerly head of Com-
modore International, engineered the
Atari purchase, and the 7800 machine

Atari 7800 keyboard.

GIVE ELECTRONIC GAMES
FOR CHRISTMAS

SCORE POINTS WITH YOUR FRIENDS
■■■■■■■■AND SAVE MONEY TOO!

^t Special Christinas Gift Rate

READER REPLAY

looks as far away as ever. It may never
see retail purchase at all.

How about doing a little digging on
it?

Clarence Brown
Zion r IL
Ed: Because of the lag between the
final copy deadline and a magazine's
on-sale date — called "lead time" in
the publishing business, we must put
EG together several months before
readers see it The September issue
was already in distribution when Tra-
miel's Atari take-over shook the elec-
tronics world. As we go to press, Atari
still hasn 't announced its plans for the
7800 and other pending projects, but
the decision will be widely publicized
long before you read this page. And
we're much too cagey to make pre-
dictions in front of an audience that
already knows the outcome.

OUT IN THE COLD

I am an owner of an Atari 5200 and I
recently read your article about the
Atari 7800. I was hoping Atari would
make a computer or something as an
upgrade for the 5200, but now it
seems Atari has scrapped the 5200 en-
tirely.

I was really hoping that the 5200
would be the best, but it now seems
that Atari doesn't care about 5200
owners. I feel now that I should have
bought a ColecoVision.

Michael Freeman
Congers, NY

PRAISES MULTIPLE
FORMATS

I would like to commend Atari for
putting its hit games out for ColecoVi-
sion and other home computers and
videogame systems. Now maybe Co-
leco will return the favor and make Co-
leco games for the 5200 and 7800.

There's no reason why all the big
game companies can't make all the big
hits for all systems. That way, every-
body has a chance to enjoy the great
games.

Ted Vinson
Fithian, IL

QUIRK OF THE MONTH

I found an interesting quirk in the
Atari computer version of B.C.'s
Quest for Tires. When in the volcano/
falling rock scenario, evade all the
rocks and race to the farthest right
point of the screen. When you get to

oooo

SPEED

BONUS SCORE
02710 00384

BCS QUEST FOR TIRES (SIERRA)

the turtles/dinosaur screen, you can
just jump through, without worrying
about either obstacle.

P.S. If the object of the game is to
rescue the Cute Chick, why is it titled
Quest for Tires?

Jeff Lunn

Whitefield, NH

Ed: Well, nobody knows the Cute

Chick's name. . .Maybe it's

Goodyear?

PSST. . .WANNA BUY
A PROGRAM?

We call ourselves SubSoft and make
computer game programs. I'd like to
ask if you want to buy a game made
for the Apple at a cheap price. We
have about 150 games.

Greg Candido
Purchase, NY
Ed: Greg, we're a magazine about
gaming — not a game manufacturer or
distributor. We don't buy or sell any
computer games, but rather, tell de-
voted gamers what's new about their
favorite hobby each month. Good
luck on selling your programs to a
game manufacturer, though.

A REAL HOME ARCADE

This letter concerns all the people
who love coin-ops. First, you don't
have to have a lot of money to buy
your own arcade machine. You can
pick up a Space Invaders (from the
right person) for $50.00, or a brand-
new, never-used M.A.C.H. 3 for

$1695.00. I own a total of five arcade
games, which are Space Odyssey,
Jack the Giantkiller, Reactor, Asteroids
Deluxe, and Tempest.

I've been collecting coin-ops for
only seven months, and have spent a
total $810.00 on my games. All of
them are in great shape. So you don't

M.A.CH. 3 (MYLSTAR)

have to dish out a lot of money to buy
your own game.

If anyone would like some informa-
tion on buying arcade games for home
use, or would like some prices, write to
me at 829 E. Mill, Santa Marie, CA
93454.

Stephen Beall
Santa Marie, CA

Electronic Games 19

THEOREM

GAME DESIGNER

TALENT HUNT

By BILL KUNKEL
And the EG Editorial Staff

How Software Publishers Woo, Win
and Keep the Top Talent

The media have lionized game de-
signers as the superstars of the
electronic entertainment world and
cruelly satirized them as nerds who
lurk in squalid bedrooms and garages.
Some creators have accumulated six-
figure bank accounts in a matter of a
few years, while others must do odd
jobs for neighbors to eke out a living.
And though software publishers fre-
quently have trouble getting along
with the folks who create the pro-

yet discovered a way to keep a rotten
game atthe top of the bestseller list —
or to get savvy electronic gamers to
purchase another disk from the same
company if the first one is a dud.

And the key to getting the right
products is to corral the best group of
designers. The competition among
companies to attract — and then keep
— the leading lights in the design
world grew steadily more intense dur-
ing the heyday of the home

tracts, but today's game creators are
not too different from other artists.
Some find money the prime moti-
vator, but other considerations can
also prove decisive. For instance, loyal-
ty keeps some designers with outfits

Mark Blanc, one of Infocom's top designers.

ducts, they know all too well that life
without them is impossible.

Since all but a few cynical fly-by-
nights depend on repeat business from
game buyers, developing the right
products is the single most important
ingredient for software publishing
success. Good marketing and
merchandising — broad headings
which include everything from
packaging to point-ot-purchase dis-
plays — are both vital, but no one has

20 Electronic Games

videogame cartridge (1981-1983).
Now that computer gaming has be-
come the most dynamic segment of
the electronic gaming field, the
behind-the-scenes maneuvering is
focusing on that arena.

Money isn't everything. It does
comes in handy, however, when
you've got to write the monthly rent
check. Some software company pres-
idents have attempted to tie up the
design stars by dangling lucrative con-

which would otherwise be outbid for
their services in an open auction. "I
might've left Commodore a year
ago," admits one anonymous code-
basher, "but I admire John Mathias
and enjoy working with him."

The local setting can be a pivotal
factor when publishers vie for the best
and brightest. The chance to relocate
to the now-legendary Silicon Valley
has gotten more than one designer to
the contract table with a northern Cali-
fornia software house. Activision, Par-
ker Brothers and First Star have made
just as effective use of the attractions
of the New York City area to lure tal-
ent.

Sometimes, one designer's Garden
of Eden is another's Devil's Island.
Companies based far off the beaten
track frequently face this one. Older
and more settled employees may glory
in small town or rural society, but foot-
loose game-inventors may find the

same setting lonely. One publisher re-
portedly solved the problem of a scar-
city of single women in its vicinity by
establishing a corporate account at its
town's best little whorehouse.

Whether or not to identify game de-
signers publicly has divided the in-
dustry for years. Even today, some
coin-op and videogame manufactur-
ers cloak their design departments in
secrecy. Proponents of this strategy
claim that it inhibits job changing
keeping key people from coming to
the notice of prospective hijackers.

Yet a consensus in favor of crediting
game creators has clearly developed in
the industry over the last two years.
Designers are artists and artists have
egos, goes the rationale. Massaging
those egos with a generous dose
of public recognition promotes
the kind of job satisfaction
that keeps program-
mers from roving.

(It doesn't hurt that printing game
credits has some solid market-
ing benefits.)

Putting together a roster
of good designers is
only part of the story.
The way in which that
talent is used can
make a publisher suc-
cessful or shove it into
Chapter 11. Each com-
pany has a distinctive
system for handling
the design function,
but most subscribe
to one of the five
most popular strat-
egies. These are:

GREAT GAME DESIGNER HUNT

Don Bluth, designer of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.

John Freeman and Anne Westfall of Freefall Assoc.

1 . Over the Transom. This method,
favored by Sirius Software and others,
consists of buying the best games
which show up at the publisher's
office. This avoids the hassle of trying
to cut deals with established stars,
since most of the work is done by rela-
tive newcomers who haven't entered
into a long-term relationship with an-
other company yet.

2. Open Market. Broderbund and
Parker Brothers are two of many com-
panies which usually follow this
approach. When a likely-looking pro-
gram comes in, it is turned over to a
developer, who whips it into publish-
able shape. Two plusses: The pub-

David Snider of Midnight Magic fame.

22 Electronic Games

lished games are invariably better than
if they had been marketed "as is", and
the interplay between the original de-
signer and the in-house guru can lead
to a continuing contract between pub-
lisher and designer.

3. Producer System. Electronic Arts
invented this arrangement to solve the
problems which arise from the differ-
ing viewpoints of the designer and the
manufacturer. According to EA chief
Trip Hawkins, some publishers have
trouble retaining creative talent be-
cause they try to make designers toe
the corporate line. "A nine-to-five
workday and dress standards are all
right for business people," he states,
"but notfor artists." This arrangement
pairs a designer or team with an in-
house producer on an ad hoc basis
until the project comes to market. The
author and publisher agree on the
general outline of the piece of soft-
ware to be developed, and the pro-
grammer then implements these deci-
sions with the producer acting as all-
around backstop and troubleshooter.
Flexibility is a major advantage of this
strategy, since it lets a company
watchdog oversee the work in prog-
ress and, when necessary, bring in
specialists to upgrade aspects of the
game even before it reaches the test
stage.

4. Outside Design Groups. Four
years ago, it looked like every pro-
grammer wanted to turn entrepreneur
by starting a company. Some did well,
but others stumbled because the abil-
ity to design a saleable game doesn't
imply the ability to market it — or run a
multi-million-dollar company, for that
matter. Some game creators wisely
decided to leave selling the goods ex-

perts and concentrate on establishing
studios specializing in software design.
Outfits such as Action Graphics, IPS
and Tom Snyder and Associates
generate a significant percentage of
new game titles

5. In-House Design. Some publish-
ers use it exclusively, and almost all use
it to some extent. This system involves
the maintenance of design teams or
individual designers right on the pre-
mises (or at an easily accessible loca-
tion). It allows company executives
and supervisee to stay closer to the
product and gives them more oppor-
tunity to shape the creation along
more commercial lines, if necessary.

Steve Kitchen, of Space Shuttle fame.

GREAT GAME DESIGNER HUNT

On the other hand, putting a designer
on salary may cut into output by
removing the freelancer's need to
work in order to keep eating.

One man with definite ideas about
how to catch and hold talent — and an
impressive track record to back his
view — is Richard Spitalny, president
of New York City- based First Star Soft-
ware. "You keep your designers the
same way you attract them in the first
place. Generally, it's your reputation,
your history of aggressive marketing.

"We give authors full credit on the
games, in the advertising and on the
promotional pieces. We play up the
authors. We respect what makes them
unique. And we're interested in new
things. When a designer comes to us
with a game, we never ask, 'What's it
like?'.

"Also, we're not putting out 25 pro-
grams a year. Anything we publish is a
major release, not just a catalog item.

"Of course, there are financial con-
siderations. But while some designers
work simply to earn a livelihood and
many newer people may be looking to
get rich quick, the true auteurs — such
as a Bill Budge or a Fernando Herrera
— got into this field to find creative
satisfaction and because of basic
curiosity about how this technology
could be used to create a new
art form."

John O'Neill, creator of Lifespan.

THE CHANGING ROLE
OF THE DESIGNER

Back when Pong was still the best
game we had, designers were a
varied, mysterious and largely un-
heralded lot. A few luminaries like
freelance genius Ralph Baer and mas-
ter marketer Nolan Bushnell shone
forth brightly, but most of the rest
simply drifted in from other fields.
Part-timers and hobbyists, whose
curiosity and imagination propelled
them into the uncharted world of the
computer, did most of the work. Few
thought of game design as a legiti-
mate career.

The toy business never bothered to
credit product inventors, and this
philosophy found ready acceptance in
electronic gaming. As a result, those
who played coin-ops, stand-alones
and hard-wired videogames during
the 1970's seldom knew the name of
the programmer who had made the
experience possible.

The story was different in computer
gaming. Since many designers mar-
keted their own products, pride of au-
thorship got a higher priority. Title
pages with full credits have thus been
the norm right up to the present day.
Most responsible for spreading this
gospel is Activision, the first video-
game publisher to identify its au-
thors.

Before the advent of Pac-Man and
big-bucks licensing, copyright protec-
tion was nonexistent. Some designers
from this period found inspiration for
computer programs as close as the
nearest family amusement center. "I
stole them," admits one programmer.
"I'd wander around the arcades and
rip off the ideas."

When the boom erupted in 1978, it
ushered in a more entrepreneurial de-
signer. Since learning to program a
microcomputer in BASIC proved to be
fairly simple, it wasn't long before
many one-person companies began
hawking their wares through direct
mail, small-space advertising in hobby
magazines and other, similar avenues.

BASIC, though easy to learn and
use, didn't produce the best-looking
graphics or quickest response for
joystick-controlled programs. By
1981, machine language programm-
ing for commercial software had be-

come common. Within a year, it had
become the industry standard. Just as
some actors couldn't make the move
from silent films to talkies in the
1930's, some programmers had their
careers ended abruptly because they
couldn't master machine language.

In the home market, at least, mem-
ory limitations became the most im-
portant consideration for authors. This
led to the emergence of the acrobats,
code- crunchers who totally mastered
one or more systems so thoroughly
that they could make the machines
perform seemingly impossible feats
within the available memory capacity.
The Apple was the main creative
forum, and the typical designer had to
produce a complete game with little, if
any, outside aid.

But the Apple didn't give much
scope for sound or graphics. That was
good for most designers of the period,
but the players wanted the caliber of
audio-visuals which had become com-
monplace in the arcades (where mem-
ory limitations are largely irrelevant).
Though solo designers have produced
many games for systems such as the
Atari and the Commodore 64, it's a
rare author who is equally adept at
conceiving and implementing
entertaining play-action and drawing
beautiful pictures.

Enter the design team. A squad of
specialists, each an expert in one
phase of game creation, can often do
things no single author could accom-
plish. The superstar designer/
programmer who can do it all is not
unknown, but more and more titles
are reaching market as a result of a
group effort.

The next turn of the wheel? It's hard
to say, but one possibility is that larger
computers will be more user-
transparent and thus lots easier to pro-
gram. This could open the way for
much more direct participation in
computer game design by artists from
other fields who now must work
secondhand because of the need for
technical assistance. Bigger computers
could also increase the use of design
teams, as huge projects are split up
into more manageable pieces to pro-
mote productivity.

Electronic Games 23

GREAT GAME DESIGNER HUNT

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The Ozark Software group.

Dan Bunten of Ozark Softscape off-
ers a view of the situation from the
designer's perspective. As an es-
tablished creator who has been in-
volved in the programming of compu-
ter software for several years r Dan
wrote such titles as Computer Quar-
terback and Cartels and Cutthroats for
Strategic Simulations and, more re-
cently, worked on M.U.L.E. and Seven
Cities of Gold which have appeared
under the aegis of Electronic Arts.

He points out that finding qualified
designers is sometimes even tougher
than keepingthem. "It's hard to know
who the top designers are, and even
after you've found them, they may
wind up not having any more good
ideas. A company could end up paying
an awful lot of money to someone
who ends up not producing any-
thing." Once the talent's in the fold,
however, Bunten sees some effective

strategies for keeping them there.
"You have to have a lot of concern for
the artist. Money is part of it, but not
the main thing. We at Ozark Softscape
have had other careers, but we look at
game designing as a great chance to
do something interesting and creative.

"As a publisher, I think it's impor-
tant to know when to let a project go.
It's like the baseball pitcher who wants
to throw a strike so badly he wants to
walk the ball right into the catcher's
mitt. You have to know when to let go
of the ball."

Not surprisingly, in view of his cur-
rent association with Electronic Arts,
Bunten is very high on that firm's
method for handling game authors. "I
think the major innovation made by
Electronic Arts, the thing a lot of other
publishers will be doing five years from
now, is the "producer". The producer
is the one who sees a project through

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS:
THE NEXT BATTLE?

Most designers have achieved good
compensation for their programming
activities, but a new factor threatens
to disrupt the harmonious climate
which has prevailed since jobs got
scarcer in the wake of the Big Shake-
out of 1983. The potential powderkeg
is revenues from licensing and other
merchandising.

Characters derived from popular
electronic games have become stars of
stage, screen and television. In some
other fields, such as comic books,
merchandising income generated by

top-of-the-line characters far exceeds
the dollar sales volume of the publica-
tions in which they actually appear.
There are signs, such as the wholesale
migration of game characters to Sat-
urday morning TV, that something
along the same line could be happen-
ing to electronic gaming.

The question; To what extent
should the designer of a game share in
the merchandising revenues produced
by that game? It may take a lot of
debate between designers and
publishers to arrive at a just answer.

from start to finish, who gets you
money when there's nothing to eat,
who contributes ideas when you're
stuck."

Analyzing Bunten's perspective pro-
vides additional evidence to prove
something we've known all along: Ev-
ery designer is different. The loose rein
of the producer system may be ideal
for a knowledgeable and experienced
self-motivator like Dan Bunten, but
the reason Electronic Arts doesn't
totally dominate talent acquisition is
that each author has different needs.
Some like the security of having some-
place definite to go each day, while
others prefer to do their electronic
creating in remote locations, surfacing
only long enough to find a publisher to
take the latest title to the public.

Designers of electronic games are,
after all, genuine creative artists. And
like artists of all types, they are mighty
hard to classify like so many butterflies
pinned to the page. As the growth of
the home computer market brings

24 Electronic Games

more and more publishers into the
sales competition, the most successful
publishers are likely to be those who

display the greatest ability to attract
satisfy and hold the gilt-edged au-
thors. G

BRIDGING
THE QUALITY GAP

An enterprising amateur could, as
recently as 1982, program a game in
his or her spare time and then market
it in some kind of utilitarian, low-cost
package. The software produced by
this type of cottage industry was not
noticeable inferior to the average title
issued by the commercial houses.

Once, programmers were like col-
lege football players. The cream of the
crop could jump into regular slots in
the National Football League directly
from the campus.. Now programmers
are more like college baseball players,
even the best of whom must serve an
apprenticeship in the minors.

The knack for growing talent to

maturity may soon become more val-
uable than the ability to spot a full-
blown star. Companies are, in a sense,
setting up their own farm systems for
programmers by giving the less ex-
perienced ones translation work and
putting novices into design groups
where veterans can teach them.

A few software houses are even
taking a cue from print publishers by
releasing promising, but slightly
flawed, first games from designers
who they hope will produce a. best
seller by their second or third try.
What retailers — many already com-
plaining about mediocre products —
will make of this remains to be seen.

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Electronic Games 25

WHAT S NEW IN

EDUCATIONAL

GA/WE5?

Here's the Latest in Learning Fun

STICKY BEAR ABC'S (WEEKLY READER)

There certainly are lots of educa-
tional games these days, especially
considering that the category only
solidified in 1983. It sometimes seems
as though every publisher and design
studio is bending its efforts to produce
software of this type.

The big impetus comes from the
very fact that it is a new class of prod-
uct. That means there's a pipeline to fill
— and plenty of companies that want
to fill it. This could lead to a shake-out
when supply must directly reflect actu-
al consumer demand, but right now,
we've got a bumper crop of new pro-
ducts.

Nursery, kindergarten and gram-
mer school topics are still the most
popular. Colorful displays and simple
contests help pre-literate toddlers
learn to count and recite the alphabet.
Action /strategy games on almost any
subject desired entertain — and in-
form — young readers. These pro-

26 Electronic Games

By JOYCE WORLEY

grams aren't meant to replace class-
room learning, but they do help make
tough topics easier to absorb.

Educational games are available for
even the very youngest child. One ti-
tle, Peek-A-Boo, by child psychologist
Dr. Lee Salk (Atari/2600 & 7800) is
suitable for infants as young as one
year old. It uses the Atari Kids' Con-
troller, and stars a cute kitty in a game
of peek-a-boo that teaches directions,
colors and shapes to the tot sitting in
its mother's lap. According to Dr. Salk,
it "involves reasoning and logical
thinking presented in a manner that
gives a child self-esteem and mas-
tery."

Most pre-reader software is aimed
at kids 2 or 3 years old or over. There
are quite a few "head start" programs
to teach preschoolers shapes, colors,
letters and numbers. Most use special
characters, or even familiar faces
licensed from other media, as on-
screen tutors to guide the youthful
computerists through colorful dis-

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STICKY BEAR SHAPES (WEEKLY READER)

STICKY BEAR ABC'S (WEEKLY READER)

plays. The Weekly Reader Family Soft-
ware library of Stickybear games
(Stickybear ABC, Stickybear Shapes,
Stickybear Numbers, Stickybear Op-
posites) for the Apple, Atari and Com-
modore 64 computers, features the
lovable bruin as on-screen tutor. High-
res storybook-style animated graphics
help youngsters acquire the important
building blocks to literacy.

Alphabet programs are a popular
starting place for parents wanting to
build an educational software library
fortheir kids. Random House's Charlie
Brown's ABC's uses Peanuts charac-
ters to illustrate each letter. Romper
Room I Love My Alphabet, by First
Star, lets kids choose a letter, then see
a descriptive object in cutely-drawn
graphics.

Software for slightly older pre-
readers places less stress on familiar
faces as guides, and more on game
motifs to hold the learner's interest.

WELCOME ABOARD (BRODERBUND)

Springboard Software's Easy as ABC
contains five games for youngsters
aged 3-6 to play while learning the
alphabet. It uses a picture menu so
non-readers can choose Match Let-
ters, Dot-to-dot, Leapfrog, Lunar Let-
ters or Honey Hunt,

Early Games For Young Children is
a multi-game package from Spring-
board for kids 216 to 6. Nine di-
versions, each accessed from a picture
menu, teach letters, how to add and
subtract, how to type and draw with
the computer, the alphabet, and how
to spell their own names, all with no
adult supervision.

Dance Fantasy by Fisher Price lets
tots create a dance to music. They get
to choose the length of the dance,
where the on-screen dancers move,
and how they work together. It's de-
signed to help sharpen youthful artistic
senses and creative skills.

Tonk In The Land Of Buddy-Bots,
written by Mercer Mayer for Mind-
scape, is a two-part program with four
skill levels in each section, forages 4-8.
Tink! Tonk!, the on-screen computer
character, leads kids on an adventure
as they travel through Buddy-Bot land
collecting different parts of a Buddy-
Bot robot, then guides them through
games that help develop visual dis-
crimination, critical thinking and com-
puter literacy.

Kermit's Electronic Storymaker, by
Simon & Schuster, uses Muppet

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characters to help beginning readers
ages 6-9 make sentences which are
then acted out on screen. Kids choose
a noun, verb and descriptive word or
phrase, drawing from a large menu of
objects. For example, choose "the
bed", then choose a verb, like
"dances", and a phrase, such as "on
the moon". The bed is pictured against
a lunar landscape, then dances gaily
across the screen.

The Muppets also star in Welcome
Aboard from Broderbund, for kids 9
and over. It uses Kermit as narrator,
with word balloons at the top of the
screen giving instructions, as young
computerists learn the basics of word

Math-based games for older stu-
dents use many of the standard in-
gredients of action arcade entertain-
ments, though the speed is scaled
down to accommodate slow readers.
Upper skill levels may be slightly faster,
but are more likely to feature tougher
arithmetic problems.

Fish-Metic by Commodore is an
arcade-style game for ages 7-13. Us-
ing a joystick, kids swim a numbered
goldfish upstream, passing over, un-
der or next to other fish depending on
whether their numbers are higher,
lower or equal to the player's minnow.
Sixteen difficulty levels, each with
three agility settings, teach positive

ROMPER ROOM I LOVE MY ALPHABET (FIRST STAR)

TONK IN THE LAND OF
BUDDY-BOTS (MINDSCAPE)

processing, telecommunications,
graphics, and programming.

Arithmetic lends itself well to action-
enhanced games, and almost every
company offers a variety of math in-
struction games covering every age
and skill group. Games for the young-
est computerists feature very simple
displays or counting activities.
Arithmetic skill builders are often
based on flash-card technology that is
incorporated into a game-like
framework to make it more fun to
practice doing sums.

Hop Along Counting and Number
Tumblers, both under the Fisher Price
banner, teach number skills. The first
title is for preschoolers 3-6, and helps
them count clever on-screen bunnies.
Number Tumblers is for grammar
school students. By jumping a cute
Wumble Chum from number to num-
ber, they get practice solving math
problems.

and negative whole numbers, frac-
tions and decimals.

Number Builder by Commodore is a
climbing and jumping game that uses
familiar motifs from high-skill games
to challenge young learners. A con-
struction worker races around the job
collecting number blocks to reach a
target digit as users learn to do sums
without pencil, paper or calculator. It

HOP ALONG COUNTING (FISHER PRICE)

Electronic Games 27

What's New In Educational Games?

OPERATION FROG (IPS/SCHOLASTIC)

AMERICA COAST-TO-COAST (CBS)

starts easy, for kids age 7, then grows
with them through 12 levels that cover
addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division.

This year there are more games for
secondary school students as design-
ers turn their attention to science,
vocabulary building, geography and
other subjects that dominate junior
and senior high school. One unusual
offering by Scholastic takes the mess
out of biology with Operation Frog,
designed by Interactive Picture Sys-
tems (the same folks that created
MovieMaker r Aerobics and Trains).
It's a computerized dissection simula-
tion. Pick the instrument (such as scis-
sors or scapel) from a tray, then go to
work on the on-screen toad. After
removing an organ, a magnifying glass
option lets the student get a closer
look. It offers a feature that no real
dissection can: after the internal ex-
ploration, students can reassemble the
frog to see it come back to life and hop
away.

Most word and vocabulary-building
games are entertaining for all ages.
Because of the necessity of providing
for slow readers, action-based word
games seems less predominant and
many feature quiz-show or trivia con-
test formats that make them fun for
everyone.

Shifty Sam from Random House is
for one or two players. Sam deals a
7-letter word to each player, who then
bets on how many words he/she can
create from those letters in 90
seconds. The amount in the pot varies
depending on the length and number
of words made by the players, and

28 Electronic Games

how often Sam doubles the bet. Shifty
Sam lets computerists enter their own
word lists, so this program can provide
unlimited gaming opportunities.

Random House's Thwart! is another
all-age vocabulary builder, but with a
different twist. Choose one of 1 2 word
categories, then come up with as
many words as possible in that divi-
sion, putting them all together like a
crossword puzzle.

History and geography are new
topics for game designs, and it seems
certain that more diversions built on
these subjects will appear in months to

OPERATION FROG (IPS/SCHOLASTIC)

U.S. ADVENTURE (FIRST STAR)

come. America Coast to Coast by CBS

Software uses a keyboard overlay so
that even computerists who can't type
will be to easily enter their an-
swers to quizzes, mysteries, puzzles and
travel games about the USA, It's for
anyone 8 or over.

U.S. Adventure by First Star is a
geography tutor for all ages. The gam-
er uses a joystick to travel around the
country. Each time a new state is en-
tered, the computerist guesses the
order of its entrance into the Union,
then learns other significant events
about it. Taking events through a time
tunnel creates animated displays
chock full of facts that teach American
history, geography and other U.S. facts,
such as states and capitals and the
country's presidents.

The tide of educational titles has not
even begun to recede. It seems safe to
predict that manufacturers will contin-
ue to flood computer stores with in-
structional software until a Great
Shakeout occurs in the educational
arena, just as it did in action games last
year. There is a lot of duplication of
effort from company to company,
which no doubt will sort itself out in
the months to come. But until then,
parents have a great diversity of pro-
grams to choose from.

At the worst, these learning games
help kids get a handle on knowledge.
But at the best, the new curriculum-
inspired titles are so entertaining that
the whole family will want to get in-
volved in the fun, and the educational
payload is so subtly introduced that no
one will notice that they're learning
while playing the games. q

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8E4729

Electronic Games 115

EG's Annual Guide to

including the first two football games
to utilize laserdisc technology.

Bally/Midway's N.F.L. Football has
the honor of being the first sports
game on laserdisc. Players can com-
pete against each other or against the
machine. The game uses old highlights
from San Diego Chargers/Los Angeles
Raiders match-ups, and while the
game is exciting to watch, it does not
require much skill to play. Players
seeking a challenge will probably be-
come bored with it quickly.

Stern's Goal to Go is another laser-
disc football game pitting the gamer's
gold team against the green team. This
game requires a little more skill than
N.F.L. Football; the player has to
move his ball carrier with the joystick,

10 YARD FIGHT (TAITO)

By MICHAEL MEYERS

The game of the gridiron has dis-
covered a newfound popularity
with young and old electrogamer
fans alike. Some of the credit for this
happening has to be given to the
USFL, whose war with the NFL has
generated a lot of public interest.

Since Electronic Games' last
"Players Guide to Electronic Foot-
ball' (Oct., 1982), five new football
simulations have been produced
for the home and three new games
have found their way to the arcades.

30 Electronic Games

Electronic Football Games

dodging tackles left and right. Also,
the player has a "hand" and "foot"
button at his command. The "hand"
button is for passing, hand-offs and
laterals, while the "foot" button, logi-
cally, is for kicking points after touch-
downs.

A classic that still can be found in
many arcades is Atari Football, one of
the first games ever to use a trackball.
In Atari Football, players compete
head to head with full eleven-man
teams (represented graphically by X's
and O's). Atari Football may be the
first video football game, but it's still
one of the best.

The newest pigskin simulation
in the arcades is 10 Yard
Fight (Taito). Like

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most football simulations, the object
of this game is to score a touchdown.
However, in order to lengthen your
playing time, you must achieve a first
down (10yds.). After gaining first
down on your first play from scrim-
mage, the player is awarded another
10 minutes playing time (simulated).
The more plays it takes to achieve a
first down, the less bonus time is
awarded. When the game clock
reaches 0:00, the game is over.

One of the unique qualities of 10
Yard Fight is the ball carrier's ability to
shake tackles. When the ball carrier is

Electronic Games 31

■ ■ • IT 1 ■ *

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: 3 2

STARBOWL FOOTBALL (GAMESTAR)

TOUCHDOWN

in the clutches of a defensive player, a
mere jiggle of the joystick will set him
free. Unfortunately, the ball carrier can
only do this three times per play.

COMPUTER FOOTBALL

There are two types of computer
football games: those that are action-
oriented — depending more on the
joystick than the players knowledge of
football — and those that are
statistically-oriented, which take actu-
al N.F.L. team statistics and include

them in the game.

Starbowl Football (Gamestar)
would be filed under the "action"
category. Players need good hand-eye
coordination to complete passes from
quarterback to receiver. Unless timed
correctly, the receiver will bobble the
ball and drop it, or a pass will be in-
tercepted by the opposition.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback
(Epyx) provides all of the teams from
the 1982 N.F.L. season, (when the S.F.
49er's were kings of the N.F.L.), along

B I Iktffll

2600 REALSPORTS FOOTBALL (ATARI)

with two All-Star squads. Players can
choose from sixteen offensive plays
and six defensive plays. Each player
chooses a play and the computer, tak-
ing into account such things as team
stats and momentum, prints out the
results. Game outcomes can be altered
significantly by injuries to key players
or penalties (which occur about once
every thirteen plays).

77V1G is very dependent on statistics
but the program does provide a little
arcade-style action when it comes to
the kicking aspects of the game. Field
goals and punts are far from automatic
in TWIG, and timing is essential. Lucki-
ly there is a "kicking practice" option
in the game.

SSI's Computer Quarterback pro-
vides a unique approach to football
simulations. In CG, the player must
purchase a team with the three million
dollars the computer has granted. Will
you spend all your money on a star
quarterback and offensive backfield,
while playing with a mediocre de-
fense? Or perhaps a balanced team
with an average defense and offensive
would suit you better? The choice is
entirely yours.

There are two speeds at which to
play CG, Semi-pro and Pro. The Semi-
pro game provides you with eighteen
offensive plays and fourteen defensive
plays. The Pro game has thirty-six
offensive plays and twenty-four de-
fensive plays. If you don't have an op-
ponent, CG can be played solo against
a computer "robot" team.

VIDEOGAME FOOTBALL

Flicker, Flicker, Flicker .... that
pretty much sums up the problem with
Atari VCS Football. Considering the
limitations of the VCS, this game isn't
all that bad. But that darned screen
flicker just ruins the game. It's hard to
keep track of a team when they're
blinking on and off like athletic ghosts.

Atari 2600 RealSports Football was
an improvement over Atari VCS Foot-
ball. Atari attempted something that
no other videogame manufacturer has
yet to attempt; they made RealSports
Football playable against the compu-
ter. How playable is the solitaire ver-
sion of this game? Unfortunately, not
very.

Because of the Atari VCS limitations,
the computer player is very predictable
in this contest (usually the computer
will run on first and second down, and
pass on third and fourth down). But
kudos to Atari for the effort.

Being a true-blue armchair quar-

32 Electronic Games

terback at heart, I literally drooled in
anticipation on seeing previews of
Mattel N.F.L. Football. And while
there is a lot more competition in the
football videogame category today,
N.F.L Football still remains one of the
finest adaptions of the sport.

In N.F.L Football, players each con-
trol one player on a five-man team.
There are nine offensive and nine de-
fensive formations to choose from,
and the offensive player can choose
between two receivers to pass to. The
number of play combinations is only
limited by imagination.

Mattel was considering updating
N.F.L. Football a few years back, but

5200 REALSPORTS FOOTBALL (ATARI)

scrolling playfield. The offense has
eighteen different formations to
choose from; the defense has six.
Video quarterbacks will love the ability
to choose between two eligible receiv-
ers on every down. The defensive
player controls the middle linebacker.
However, by pushing the lower fire
button before the ball is snapped, the
middle linebacker can be repositioned
anywhere on the field. This is useful for
blitzing the quarterback or operating
in a prevent defense.

The only flaw in this game is the
weakness of the defense when there
are two skilled players competing. Be-

cause the computer-controlled players
on defense aren't as skilled as the
joystick-controlled players, certain
offensive plays cannot be stopped —
no matter how skilled the defense is. I
leave it to you to discover exactly
which plays I mean.

Coleco Football — after almost a
year's delay — looks like it may finally
reach the market. This excellent foot-
ball contest boasts superior graphics
and the ability to control up to four
players at once (by way of the Coleco
Super Action Controlers). Coleco
Football should make a big splash in
the sports game market. Q

these plans never came to be. Still,
most sports gamers are content with
Mattel N.F.L. Football the way it is.

Mattel's M Network Football, com-
patible with the Atari 2600, is more
than just an adaption of Mattel's
N.F.L. Football. Unlike the Intellivision
version, M Network Football allows
you to determine who will block and
who will go out for a pass during any
given play. M Network Football may
not be as visually perfect as N.F.L.
Football, but it's certainly just as play-
able.

You know what they say — "third
time's a charm!" Well, Atari's third at-
tempt at a pigskin simulation is just
that — a charm!

In Atari 5200 Football, players drive
their six-man teams down a beautiful

SUPER ACTION FOOTBALL (COLECO)

Electronic Games 33

OUR ARCADE GAMES

WE BROUGHT

- J BugfE B Be*
■*^B B^* JB^

Bally Midway's Spy Hunter puts
you in the driver's seat of the hottest
machine on four wheels. You're
after enemy spies. The situation is
life and death. You'll need every
weapon you've got - machine guns,
and guided missiles, oil slicks and
smoke screens. But the enemy is
everywhere. On the road, in the
water, even in the air. So you'll have
to be more than fast to stay alive in
Spy Hunter. You'll need brains and
guts, too.

Do you have what it takes?

Bally Midway's Tapper would like
to welcome you to the fastest game
in the universe.

You're serving up drinks in some
of the craziest places you've ever
seen. And the service better be good,
or else. You'll work your way
through the wild Western Saloon to
the Sports Bar. From there to the
slam dancing Punk Bar and on into
the Space Bar full of customers who
are, literally, out of this world. 1

Are you fast enough to play Tap-
per? If you have to ask, you probably
already know the answer.

Bally Midway's Up 'N Down by
Sega. In this game, a crash is no
accident.

In fact, it's the whole object of the
game. You'll race your baja bug over
some of the worst roads south of any
border. Leap dead ends, gaping can-
yons and oncoming traffic in a single
bound. And if anyone gets in your
way crush 'em.

Crashing, bashing Up 'N Down. It's
one smash hit that really is a smash.

The #1 ArcadeGameof 1984.

Nominated as Most Innovative Coin-Op
Game of 1984 by Electronic Games magazine.

#1 Arcade Hit, Play Meter Conversions Poll,
8/1/84.

WERE SUCH BIG HITS
THEM HOME.

Sega's Congo Bongo rocked the
home game world when it shot up to
Number 3 on the Billboard chart
this summer.

And now it's available for even
more home systems. So check the
chart and get ready for jungle action.
You'll pursue the mighty ape Congo
up Monkey Mountain and across the
Mighty River. Do battle with dan-
gerous jungle creatures. Ride hip-
pos, dodge charging rhinos and try
to avoid becoming a snack for a
man-eating fish.

Congo Bongo. It's fast and it's fun.
But be careful. It's a jungle in there.

u*-.> tf*

iKT J md

Sega's Zaxxon. If you haven't
played Zaxxon, you must have been
Jiving on another planet for the past
few years.

And now the ultimate space com-
bat game is available for even more
home systems. You'll pilot a space
fighter through force fields and ene-
my fire on your way to do battle with
the mighty Zaxxon robot. Countless
others have gone before you in this
Hall of Fame game. But this time
your life is in your own hands.

Zaxxon killed them in the arcades.
But compared to what it will do to
you at home, that was child's play.

a,
a.

£5

«c

Atari 2600

cartridge

NEW

Atari 5200

cartridge

NEW

Atari

Computers*
cartridge

NEW

Atari Computers 1 "

diskette

NEW

ColeeoVision &

ADAM cartridge

NEW

Commodore 64

cartridge

NEW

Commodore 64

diskette

NEW

Apple II, He, He

diskette

NEW

IBM PC

diskette

NEW

Arcade and Home Smash. Hit #3 on Billboard One of only ten games ever to make Electronic
magazine'sTop Video Games survey. Games' Hall of Fame.

Published by Sega Enterprises, Inc.
/ Published by Datasoft, Inc. under license from Sega

Enterprises, Ine,

Published by Coleeo Industries, Inc. under license

I rum Sega Enterprises, Inc.

Published by Synapse Software Corporation under

license from Sega Enterprises, Inc.
*Atari400, 800, 60DXL, 800XLand 1200XL.
(Congo Bongo cartridge: 400, 800 and 800XL.)
tAlari800,600XL,800XLand 1200XL.
**Also available for IBM PCjr.

All new games are scheduled to be in your stores for
Christmas. Check your local dealer.
© 1984 Sega Enterprises, Ine.

I Number of game levels varies on eart ridges for Atari
and Commodore systems. Atari, 2600, 5200, 400, 800,
600XL, 800XL, and 1200XL are trademarks of Atari
Corporation. Commodore 64 is a trademark of Com-
modore Elee ironies, Inc. ColeeoVision and ADAM arc-
trademarks of Coleeo Industries, Inc. Apple, II, lie, and
lie are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. IBM, PC and
PCjr are trademarks of International Business Machines
Corp. UP 'N DOWN is a trademark of Sega Enterprises,
Ltd., manufactured under license from Sega Enterprises,
Ltd., Japan. Videogame copyright ©1983 Sega Enter-
prises, Ltd. BALLY MIDWAY is a trademark of Bally
Midwav Mfg. Co. Package and program copyright © 1984
Sega Enterprises. Inc. TAPPER and SPY HUNTER arc-
trademarks of Bally Midway Mfg. Co. Videogame
copyright © 1983 Bally Midway Mfg. Co. All rights
reserved. ZAXXON is a trademark of Sega Enterprises,
Inc. Copyright © 1984, Sega Enterprises, Inc. CONGO
BONGO is a trademark of Sega Enterprises, Ine.
Copyright ©1983, Sega Enterprises, Inc.

compuTERGflminG

Action Arena

Passport to Adventure

Think Tank

Articles of War

Electronic Pressbox

Playing It Smart

Translations

ACTION ARENA

ARCADE BOOT CAMP

Considering the popularity of com-
puterized tutorials, it's amazing that
no publisher until Penguin has pro-
duced an interactive training system
for improving skill at arcade action
games. Frivolous subject? Sure. But no
more so than blackjack.

The computerist marches a cute lit-
tle cartoon character into the right sec-
tion of the training ground to pick one
of the five fields of study. Choose
quickly, or the drill sergeant will give
you a boot in the rump to hasten your
decision.

In driving, one of the five fields, the
player tries to keep a jeep on a twisty
road for 25 scale miles. Each crash
costs a rank, counting down from
Sergeant Major. If the driver travels
the required distance before losing the

last stripe, the next task is to stay on a
similar road — but this time it's
covered with slippery ice! As the
trainee becomes more proficient, the
tests grow more demanding.

The program helps the player mas-
ter the various play-mechanics which
are the basis of most electronic action
games. Only time will tell if it works,
but it certainly is an intriguing concept.

The computerist logs onto the disk
prior to the first play-session. By enter-
ing a code number at the start of each
subsequent boot, the recruit tells the
program that a familiar student is back
for more training.

None of the modules sparkles as a
game, but the idea is so ingenious —
and is carried off in such high style —
that most blast brigaders will want
Arcade Boot Camp for their software
library.

(Arnie Katz)

ARCADE BOOT CAMP (PENGUIN)

ZOMBIES

When Wistrik hid the crowns of the
Middle Kingdoms in seven dungeons,
he created an action quest worthy of
any armchair hero. Only the most skill-
ful joystick jockeys will be able to ex-
plore the seven realms, each depicted
in striking pseudo-3-D perspective,
and emerge bearing the crowns with-
out exhausting the initial supply of 50
hit points.

Since Wistrik protected his seven
dungeons with a spell that negates
standard weapons, the hero must util-
ize two main magical helps — and a
deft hand on the stick to steer the on-
screen figure away from dangers
which can't be out-fought.

The ability to cast spells is the play-
er's most powerful resource. A scroll
either gives the character five addi-
tional hit points or makes it possible to
work one of three types of in-
cantations. Pushing the action button
while the character stands still lets the
computerist choose one of three spells
by throwing the stick in the appropri-
ate direction. (Pulling the stick down
casts the most recently acquired spell.)

Spells are great stuff, but getting
past the zombies, snakes and flying
eyes which pollute the seven realms
requires mastery of the 32 Talismans
of Rhadamanthus. The hero drops a
cross when the gamer hits the action
button while the character is moving.
During its four-second life span, a
Talisman acts like mystic fly paper, im-
mobilizing any being which touches it.
The hero has 32 such crosses,
although they can be reused once their
period of effectiveness ends and they
disappear from the playfield.

The graphics are brilliantly con-
ceived. Although the drawings aren't
very complex, inspired useof colorand
shape gives each realm an in-
dividualized look.

36 Electronic Games

Zombies can be played solitaire, or
two adventurers can cooperate. As in
the Odyssey videogame Quest for the
Rings, a pair of on-screen worthies can
pool their efforts to collect all the
prizes.

Good games are common these
days. Those which also display
originality are much rarer. Zombies is
such a game.

(Steve Davidson)

ZEPPELIN

Synapse Software/

Atari computers/48K Disk

Successfully piloting a stolen zeppe-
lin through a multi-chambered cave
complex is the only way to escape the
prison of the Timelords in this omni-
directional scroller.

The craft can put out a lot of fire-
power in response to hitting the action
button, which is fortunate, because
the complex bristles with stationary
and mobile weapons. The gamer can
improve the odds of survival by selec-
tively shooting switches embedded
into the cave walls. Each switch con-
trols a specific weapon. Zapping the
right switch can remove a flight of
attack helicopters, turn off a rock fall
or nullify a laser gate. This puts a pre-
mium on accurate marksmanship,
while not negating the advantage of a
quick trigger-finger.

Multiple skill levels keep the game
interesting even after repeated play,
but frankly, many home arcaders will
be a long time working up to "expert"
status.

Bill Mataga, who also created the
Shamus series, has designed another
great action computer game.

(Arnie Katz)

SARGON II

Hayden /Commodore 64/Disk

Is anyone looking for a chess-
playing soulmate available any time,
an easy way to examine possible
moves or past games, or a way to com-
pete with a challenger that can grow in
ability as they do?

If so, then search no more!
Hayden's Sargon II provides all that
and then some. Experienced chess
players can practice involved strat-
egies while novices, with the aid of a
beginner's book, can learn from the
computer's moves or the advice it
gives.

Before Sargon II this reviewer had
forgotten how entertaining a good,
stimulating game of chess could be!

It is astoundingly easy to use. Even
the edit function (for setting up de-
veloped games) can be learned in mi-
nutes. Want to take back a move? No
problem at all! A few edit keystrokes
take care of the whole matter.

Would-be Bobby Fischers select
color as well as level of difficulty. As
the easiest, zero is a Cakewalk in which
the computer responds immediately.
Level nine allows the computer an
average of four hours per move. In
most levels the computer plans ahead,
considering possible countermoves
and their responses. Thus the depth of
Sargon II becomes apparent.

The board, seen from above, depicts

ZEPPELIN (SYNAPSE)

SARGON II CHESS (HAYDEN)

standard chess figures. Audio signals
alert players to illegal moves as well as
checkmate.

Two-entry alphanumeric notation is
used to move the pieces about. En pas-
sant capturing and castling (either
side) are also incorporated. Need some
advice? Just press F3 and the silicon
opponent provides what it thinks is a
good move although there are no
guarantees!

Well-planned, nicely presented, a
joy to play. What more could one ask
for? Sargon II, check (mate) it out!
(Ted Salamone)

BUNNY

Datamost/ Apple II/48K Disk

To get a little pre-game inspiration,
start by paging through the comic
book that depicts the growth of Reg-
gie Rabbit from a philosophical weak-
ling into the heroic Super Bunny. Dale
Kranz, who put the Super Bunny
legend together out of a concept by
Gary Koffler, should get some credit
for the comic book rendition of the
story. It is impossible to read this tale
without wanting to get on the screen
and help Super Bunny destroy the vil-
lians and grab great glory.

In the trip from the comic book to
the computer screen, some of the
magic slips away. The graphics by
Thomas Spears, however, are as good
as anything you'd want to see on such
an outing. Reggie Rabbit looks very
vulnerable as he dodges the bad guys
on his way across the screen to get to
the magic carrots that will transform
him into Super Bunny.

Once he makes it across the screen,
his worries aren't over yet as the
gremlin holding the carrots shifts ran-
domly to one of three positions on the
right-hand side of the screen.

Once Reggie has chomped the car-
rots the cowering coney turns Super.
He must then make the same trip back
across the screen, this time trying to
run into and eliminate as many of the

Electronic Games 37

COMPUTER GAMING

SUPER BUNNY (DATAMOST)

wolves, snakes, owls, vultures and so
on as he can before time runs out on
the carrots' power.

At the first level, the hero has 45
seconds of Super Bunny powers dur-
ing which to vanquish the foes. At
each successive level the magic power
lasts for five fewer seconds until only
20 seconds remain at the sixth level.

What is disappointing about the
game is the manner in which Reggie or
Super Bunny must avoid or chase the
enemies. Across the main section of
the screen are several rows of vertical-
ly moving elevators. Some are empty
and some are full of meanies. But
while many of the better and more
challenging games require a multitude
of skills to achieve high scores and up-
per levels, Super Bunny requires only a
good sense of timing to get inside each
elevator compartment.

That isn't to say the game is easy,
it's just rather one-dimensional. Super
Bunny can be played with keyboard,
joystick or paddle, and the disk saves
the top 10 scores. For graphics and
cuteness of story alone, Super Bunny
might have enough positives to be
worth the purchase, but the games'
excitement level isn't sky-high.

(Rick Teverbaugh)

FROGGER II: THREEDEEP

Parker Brothers/
Commodore 64/Cartridge

This sequel to Frogger is better than
its predecessor in more ways than one.
While the play-mechanic remains the
same — maneuvering the title char-
acter across rows of moving hazards —
plenty of new twists have been added.
The question remains, however, how
many Froggers does a gamer need?

Frogger II begins underwater, but
play occurs on three different screens,

so he also sees action on the water's
surface and in the air. Realism is
obviously not an issue here. Not only
does this frog go airborne, but the col-
lection of creatures encountered on
the surface screen would give Marlin
Perkins the willies!

On the first level, the gamer must
guide three frogs home to logs floating
across the top of the screen while
avoiding the snapping jaws (and tails)
of alligators and barracudas, which run
in packs across the screen.

So far this sounds like Frogger /, but
there is an added hazard here: the
water current. Frogs can't sit and wait
for openings — the current sweeps
Frogger off screen to certain death.
Treading water is fine, though, and
there is help available in the form of a
friendly turtle who can carry our hero
piggyback almost to the top of the
screen. If he goes off-screen with frog
attached, both simply reappear on the
opposite side of the screen, alive and
well. This does eat up time, so joyrid-
ing on the turtle is not recommended.

Gamers can move between the
three screens without logging all the
frogs on any one. Downwards move-
ment is accomplished by falling into
either water or air with no penalty ex-
cept wasted time. If a frog jumps onto
the end of a log or onto an occupied
log at the top of the undersea play-
field, he ends up on the surface. Here
he must hop amongst a peculiar col-
lection of aquatic fauna, including hip-
pos, alligators (non-lethal), ducks and
whales, on the way to a life preserver
towed across the top of the screen. Be
wary of the Mama duck; she has a
Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. If she
passes while the frog is hitching a ride
on her ducklings, that's one life gone.
However, hopping onto her back
takes the frog to the third screen.

In the air, Frogger bounces on
trampoline-like clouds until he catches
a passing bird, and then leap from bird
to pterodactyl to bird in order to reach
a niche in the clouds. Avoid the flying
dinosaur — bouncing into his un-
derside is lethal. Fill all the berths on all
screens and the game gets harder and
faster, with more dangerous, and few-
er useful, creatures.

Bonus points are available on all
screens, including a super bonus on
the surface. Underwater, the air bub-
bles which rise from the bottom are

FROGGER II: THREEDEEP (PARKER BROS.)

worth 1 00 points, as are the butterflies
flitting among the clouds. Every
10,000 points, a stork appears on the
air screen — hitching a ride on it nets a
baby frog and an extra life.

Frogger II is a good game of its kind,
although it has a somewhat old-
fashioned air about it. Certainly fans of
the original Frogger will be very
pleased with its successor, and newer
fans should find it appealing and
challenging as well. About the only
really negative thing to say about this
game is that the timing of its release is
off. A year ago, before the rise of com-
puter action games with their greater
emphasis on strategy, this would have
been a more exciting release.

(Louise Kohl)

JUNGLE HUNT

AtariSoft/ Apple II/48K Disk

This edition of the Taito coin-op
may prove shocking at first, because it
certainly doesn't look like other edi-
tions of the multi-scenario action-
adventure. The programmer knew
that it would be impossible to dupli-
cate the familiar visuals and wisely
didn't try. Instead, this version sports
a totally new graphic look which em-
ploys the capabilities of the Apple to
good purpose.

The play is basically unchanged
from the other arcade-to-home trans-
lations. That is, the player uses the
joystick to guide an on-screen explorer
through the jungle, across the river
and up the hill to rescue a princess
from the cannibals.

If Jungle Hunt is a favorite, this edi-
tion should be fairly pleasing. It's a
solid production with most of the vir-
tues — and flaws, too — of the play-
for-pay machine.

(Steve Davidson)

38 Electronic Games

/Touchdown
Football

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[^^■^j^^^^^Kj^^B

IMAG. *

IMAG

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- >

I MAGIC f

^ , f 9

Touchdown
Football

Tournament
Tennis

Grand Slam
Baseball

Chopper Hunt Dragon fire

IMAGIC 1-2-3 Moonsweeper

Touchdown Football: 'Without qualification, Touchdown' is the best
football game available for the IBM. . . the game is a triumph in football
programming!' Creative Computing

Tournament Tennis: "Jsthe#1 selling game in the United Kingdom
on the top 50 and top 20 charts." pcn Charts

Dragon fire: ". . . clearly defines a new 'state-of-the-art' for game visuals.
It is one of the most exciting arcade games." Electronic Games

IMAGIC 1-2-3: "The three-in-one format provides a terrific value to
customers:' The Whizz Kid

Moonsweeper: "...is an arcade-quality space game with truly spectacular
graphics. Play action is very involving. . /Moonsweeper' is a winner!"

Video Game Update

IMAGIC's Action Sports and Arcade Action games for lasting enjoyment Vivid, exciting
graphics and sounds and realistic game-play transport you to playing fields and magical
worlds. Take some good advice and jump into the action today

Available for IBM, Commodore, Apple, Tandy, Atari and ColecoVision/Adam systems.

COMPUTER GAMING

IFR FLIGHT SIMULATOR (ACADEMY)

IFR FLIGHT SIMULATOR

Academy/ Commodore 64/Disk

Academy's IFR Flight Simulator for
the C-64 allows compugamers to take
total control of a light plane similar to a
Cessna 172RG.

The screen depicts a working instru-
ment panel consisting of compass, air
speed indicator, altimeter, fuel
gauges, flaps and turn indicators,
artificial horizon, and other naviga-
tional aids. It has an extremely realistic
look.

Combination joystick/keyed input
controls all flying and steering func-
tions. Push the craft beyond its limits
and it's curtains for all on board!

Failure to read the maps correctly or
fully understand the instrumentation
can cause dire consequences in the
real-time flights between four airports.

IFR provides many of the challenges
of actual flight, and consequently it
has a longer-than-average learning
curve. Luckily, the pleasure derived
from it makes the extra effort worth-
while.

(Ted Salamone)

PINBALL WIZARD

Microdigital/VIC-20/Cassette

There's something about playing a
pinball game on a computer that's
magical. Maybe it's the bells ringing —
more likely though, it's the bouncing

40 Electronic Games

ball. Whatever it is, Pinball Wizard has
that magic.

Players start the game with five
balls. (Extra balls are awarded at
50,000 and 75,000 points.) As in other
pinball games, the ball has bounce,
gravity and speed. Points, of course,
are accumulated by rolling over dots
and hitting bumpers and bonus
arrows.

Since all play is conducted through
the keyboard, joystick jockeys may
have some trouble getting used to the

game. But die-hard pinball wizards
shouldn't have any problem. The play-
er pulls back on the plunger by de-
pressing the F5 key, and releases the
ball by hitting the F7 key. The cursor
key controls the right flipper, and the
CBM key corresponds to the two flip-
pers on the left.

In addition to hitting the ball with
the flippers, players can use the equiv-
alent of body English. By touching the
spacebar, the ball is kept in action a
little longer. Watch out, though — de-
press the bar too much and the game
will tilt.

Pinball Wizard also comes with a
BSM (Basic Score Multiplier). Each
time the ball rolls over one of the five
dots, it changes color. The BSM is
equal to the number of same-colored
dots.

The only drawback to Pinball
Wizard is that the ball can't be held on
the outside edge of the flipper,
bounced and then whacked back up
through the chutes.

(Vincent Puglia)

COSMIC TUNNELS

by Tim Ferris

DataMost/ Atari computers

As in the "Star Wars" saga, the first
episode of Captain Sticky's adventures
in space to become public is dubbed
"part four" of a larger series. Cos-
mic Tunnels puts the player in the role
of the corpulent captain himself as he
aids the planet Siref in its war against
the Jebs.

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PINBALL WIZARD (MICRODIGITAL)

COMPUTER GAMING

It seems the Jebs have cut Siref off
from its energy-producing asteroid
belt, and only Captain Sticky can save
the day! His first mission: to maneuver
his spacecraft from its home base to
one of the four square Cosmic Tunnel
gates at the top of the screen, while
dodging falling meteors.

Once through the gate, the ship en-
ters a space warp. Mines appear in the
distance, hurtling towards the ship at
lightning speed. Shoot as many of
these as possible. Allowing a mine to
hit the ship — or even get past without
being destroyed — drains the space-
ship of precious energy.

After leaving the tunnel, Captain
Sticky must successfully land on the
asteroid's surface. Enemy bases shoot
energy-sapping bombs, so it's advis-
able to destroy them all before
touching down on the landing pad.

Once on the asteroid, the caped
crime-buster faces his toughest chal-
lenge yet: to retrieve the two glowing
energy bars and place them in the
ship. His progress is slowed by the pre-
sence of Dynobots, Electric Lizards,
Monstrous Minchers, or even the
dreaded Space Turkeys. If a critter
touches the captain, he loses a life.
Luckily, four x-marked launch pads
help him whizz over their heads in re-
lative safety. When both energy bars
are safely in the ship, it's on to the next
tunnel — and the next asteroid.

Cosmic Tunnels is a well-planned,
enjoyable game with a cohesive plot
line, nice visuals and sound, and varied
play-action. It's not the most enthrall-
ing game on the block, but it's an in-
teresting addition to a game library.
(Trade Forman)

CRAZY CAVEMAN

Merlin/Commodore 64/Disk

As a cave dweller separated from his
hunting party, the player's goal is to
regain friends and family. Traveling
left, the only way permitted except for
momentary backtracking, arcaders
jump rolling boulders by pushing the
joystick forward. If any of the three
game lives survive this ordeal, it's on to
the march of the dinosaurs.

These solid green sprites attack in
single-file waves of four. Pressing the
fire button swings the one offensive
weapon the caveman left the cave
with — a stone axe. There's no real
violence though, because the
ravenous reptiles are merely chopped

CORE :

2680

CRAZY
CAUEMAM

HIGH-
2686!

CRAZY CAVEMAN (MERLIN-3R)

down to size.

Other dangers include flightless
dodo birds which travel by leaps and
bounds. Needless to say they are to be
avoided — a task that's much easier
said than done.

Last, but not least, pterodactyls fly
overhead, dropping rocks on the we-
ary traveler. Do well enough (10,000
points) and another game life is
earned.

The graphics, except for the cave-
man, are lackluster. The play-action is
fluid, though selectable difficulty
levels would have made it a better
game. Crazy Caveman is so difficult at
first, it's downright disheartening.

The sound effects are minimal,
mostly indicating the wanderer's foot-
steps or his demise. The funeral is cele-
brated with a flashing rainbow of col-
ors replacing the blue sky above the
monocolored mountains. Unusual, to
say the least.

Overall, Crazy Caveman is an aver-
age offering — not worth the time
needed to become accomplished at
rejoining the tribe.

(Ted Salamone)

O f RILEY'S MINE

Programmed by Mark Riley
Dataso ft/ Atari computers/
16K Disk or Cassette

This one-screen tunneling game
may not add anything earthshaking to
the genre, but what it does, it does
exceptionally well.

Thematically, O'Riley's Mine is

much too familiar. The gamer un-
earth all the buried treasures before
the raging subterranean river sub-
merges the mine shaft of the miner,
O'Riley, is caught by one of the three
riled river monsters. The intrepid miner,
however, is prepared with dyna-
mite sticks, which he can use to cave in
the shaft behind him and temporarily
block the monsters.

The river rises at a faster pace at
higher levels, and the river monsters
have their own timer, of sorts.
Whenever the moon rises
above ground, they get more aggres-
sive. To make matters worse for
O'Riley, one of the treasures becomes
a skull and crossbones.

There's really only one com-
plaint possible: that of aesthetics.
Why did the designer feel it necessary
to include so many diverse lodes (oil,
gold bars, diamonds, rubies, coal and
uranium in the same mine shaft? It
may be a trite complaint, but it's the
little things such as this that prevent a

O'RILEY'S MINE (DATAMOST)

Electronic Games 41

COMPUTER GAMING

good game, like O' Riley's Mine, from
becoming a great one.

(Vincent Puglia)

BLUE MOON

Meriin-3R Imports/ Commodore 64/Disk

Blue Moon is proof that outer
space-themed slide and shoots have
international appeal. Made in England
by Merlin Software and imported by
3R Import and Export Corp. of Syra-
cuse, New York, this multiscreen
arcade-style game is a blast with a
Lime(y) twist.

As pilot of an intergalactic space
vessel, compugamers must defeat var-
ious enemies before rescuing the crew
of a sister ship and returning to land on
the Blue Moon. Choosing from fifteen
difficulty settings, players use the joy-
stick to steer, and the fire button to
annihilate.

First the two components of the ship
must be mated. Failure to do so results
in loss of one of the five vessels avail-
able at game start. Nex some fur-
iously-moving comets have to be dis-
patched. These are good-looking
sprites which mostly travel across the
top of the screen. Occasionally they
drop straight down, or cut across di-
agonally at extreme angles. Tricky,
very tricky.

Blue bouncers then show up. They
move helter-skelter across the screen

BLUE MOON (MERLIN-3R)

at almost light speed. They fire back
and have an annoying habit of chang-
ing directions without warning. Thank
goodness for the ship's unlimited
rapid-fire weaponry!

The Tecom man appears next,
dropping deadly droids and yellow
eggs, which hatch into plasma-firing
bell birds. Beware of this combo. After
that, a successful landing on the
moonbase earns players another life,
causes the Union Jack to unfurl to the
strains of "Hail Britannia", and ad-

vances gamers to the next level auto-
matically. Quite effective. Besides this
brief musical interlude and the gaming
audio effects, the tune "Blue Moon" is
artfully rendered when the title page is
displayed. The graphics are good, too
— colorful, well-detailed (the droids
particularly so), and extremely varied.
Blue Moon is a well-rounded pack-
age which should put new life into a
pretty worn theme. Highly recom-
mended!

(Ted Salamone)

PASSPORT

TO ADVENTURE

QUESTRON

Strategic Simulations/ Apple II/48K Disk
The life of a Geraldtown serf isn't
much to write home about. It's even
less to write a fantasy adventure
about. But fear not, you won't stay a
lonely serf for long once you venture
from Geraldtown to seek and destroy
the foes of the crown in Questron.

Questron is actually an action-
adventure that combines the best fea-
tures of both the text and graphic
adventures, but with a real emphasis
on payability.

To make a computer game playable,
the first major step is to make the

documentation easy to read and com-
prehend. With Questron, Strategic
Simulations has even gone a step
further. Besides being informative, the
book is written with a flair for the
dramatic, the bizarre and the
humorous.

After a close inspection of this docu-
ment, it will become obvious what the
historical perspective of your impor-
tant journey is, as well as what trou-
bles fate likely has planned for your
character, who's being forced to take
on this trek without partners —
although not necessarily without help.

The first section details the history of

Questron, both before and after the
Baron Rebellion. Excerpts from several
letters and a diary provide the in-
formation on a personal first-hand
basis.

When the quest begins, players start
with a section of the game known as
outdoor play. The outdoor adventure
is shown on a large and only slightly
detailed map. It is akin to the type of
map found on SSI's war games. Move-
ment at this level is accomplished by
using the joystick or keyboard com-
mands.

Each type of terrain differs in its
physical aspects and types of indige-
nous monsters. For instance, on the
ocean you might meet the Hydro Snake.
It's your common water snake —
except that it's 300 feet long and 20
feet thick. It secretes a substance
which causes water to burn, but it also
secretes a substance which causes
water not to burn. So, it is vital to not

42 Electronic Games

COMPUTER GAMING

\~\+S\ MilB aa: &

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QUESTRON (STRATEGIC SIMULATIONS)

kill such a snake if it has started a fire
until it has also put the fire out!

In the jungle, one might wander
upon the Irish Stalker. This horned
creature is deadly in clearings, but can
become entangled in the underbrush
due to its massive rack of nearly 14
feet. It can be a deadly foe, but is
thought to be susceptible to the mace.

This brings us to another part of the
game, which is journeyingthrough the
towns, cathedrals, and castles. These
are marked merely as special squares
on the outdoor map, but once making
contact the area will be identified and
the gamer is asked if he/she wishes to
enter. If the answer is yes, the scale
expands to allow a fuller view of the
area.

By making contact with the people
and vendors in these places, players
have a chance to buy food and other
essential items, as well as being able to
win money in games of chance like
roulette or blackjack. Experimentation
and innovation are the keys to getting
the most out of each of these visits. A
key piece of advice is to be sure to buy
enough food.

A third type of display is the
dungeon, shown in a three-
dimensional perspective. There are 32
different monsters to be found here
and it takes some accumulated tricks
and quick wits to survive.

The player's status is kept up to date
on the screen in areas like hit points,
food, time and gold. Each player starts
with 1 5 points each for attributes such
as strength, stamina, dexterity, in-
telligence and charisma. What the
character does during the quest will
determine whether these totals are
raised or lowered.

Characters can be saved at any time
to disk for a later adventure. There is
an on-screen command list which en-
ables gamers to arm themselves,
climb, dismount, fight, change game

speed, hold items, inventory items,
rob, speak, use magic, vacate a town
or cathedral, put on armour or exam-
ine the surroundings — with the touch
of one key.

In a game with so many positive
elements, it is difficult to find any
faults. If there is a flaw it could be in
the tendency to starve to death often

until the importance of getting vitals at
each stop becomes firmly imbedded.
When one of the hardest gaming de-
cisions is whether to play a text or a
graphic adventure or just an action-
arcade tussle, Questron could be one
of the best choices of all.

(Rick Teverbaugh)

THE HULK

Commodore- Adventure Int'l/
Apple II/48K Disk

This illustrated adventure is the first
installment of a 12-part series which
parallels a run of comic books, "Quest
Probe", that Marvel Comics will
publish over the next four years.

The idea of portraying a superhero is
attractive, and no one can fault the
project's ambitious scope, but the first
chapter is not encouraging.

Electronic Games 43

COMPUTER GAMING

The problems begin with the choice
of the Hulk as the protagonist of the
game. The idea of the bestial be-
hemoth unraveling a string of knotty
puzzles is ludicrous. The green-
skinned gargantua shouldn't have to
do anything more complicated than
bellow, "Hulk smash! Hulk smash you
all!" Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Su-
preme who also stars in this adventure,
would've made a more convincing —
and satisfying — viewpoint character.

Every author is permitted a degree
of artistic license, but the writing in this
program goes beyond the usual
bounds of acceptability. An adventure
that strands the player in the brute's
banal secret identity of Bruce Banner is
not likely to thrill Hulkophiles. The way
that the author resorts to heavy-
handed deus ex machina tactics to
keep the course of the action straight-
jacketed only frustrates the com-
puterist.

This brings up a fairly basic de-
fect. As an adventure, it is at least a
year behind current state-of-the-art.
The primitive sentence parser simply
doesn't allow a large enough vocab-

ulary compared to other contempo-
rary adventure software, and the
puzzle-oriented, lock-step construc-
tion of the story makes the program
seem claustrophobic.

The artwork, done by John Romita
Sr. and several other Marvel vets, is
very good. It's important in a game of
this type that the on-screen images ac-
tually look like the characters that
they're supposed to represent. In The
Hulk, the artwork is comparable to
what Marvelites are accustomed to
seeing on the four-color page.

The plot line will not be discussed
here, because to do so would remove
much of the interest. Suffice it to say
that the Hulk must figure out why he's
awakened in an unbreakable dome
while trying to extricate himself from
the trap.

A superhero adventure is an
applause-worthy idea, but it is hoped
that better programming and greater
attention to comic book verisimilitude
will make future installments more ex-
citing and faithful to the Marvel uni-
verse.

(Arnie Katz)

THINK TANK

TYCOON

Blue Chip Software/ Apple II/48K Disk

Watching the stock market can be a
frustrating experience. It always seems
to take so much money to make
money; the rich get richer while us

poorfolks well, you know howthat

saying goes.

But Blue Chip Software has found
an intelligent alternative which makes
it possible for those of us less fortunate
economically to put together big deals
and come away with huge profits.

Tycoon allows the gamer to step
into the fascinating world of commod-
ity market trading. While Blue Chip's
Millionaire worked with the stock
market and Baron dealt with real es-
tate, Tycoon concerns itself with the
speculative world of futures trading in
the world's raw materials.

These raw materials range from the
more traditional items like soybeans
and the infamous pork bellies, to the
more glamorous gold, silver, oil and

foreign currencies.

The first thing to notice about the
game is the well-written documenta-
tion. Sometimes the rule books in-
cluded in such a complex simulation
are more difficult to understand than
the game. This time around, there is
even a page of the rules telling the best
way to use the rule book.

As an even better player-aid idea,

TYCOON (BLUE CHIP)

COFFEE BEANS ARE THE SEEDS OF SHALL
BERRIES FROM THE ARI6ICA TREE. COFFEE IS
THE HOST POPULAR DRINK IN THE HORLDftS
EUIDEHCED BY THE 388 HILL I ON CUPS DOWNED
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THE WORLDS COFFEE COHES FROH CEHTRAL AMD
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ANCIENT ETHIOPIA MHEH GOATS HERE FOUND
STAYING UP ALL NIGHT AFTER FEEDING ON

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OHE COFFEE CONTRACT IS EQUAL TO
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CHANGE IN A TRADIHG SESSItT
CEHTS'POUHD OR $3,866 PEP CONTRA

PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE-

TYCOON (BLUE CHIP)

there is demonstration mode on the
disk that will give the new player a
glimpse at what the program can do
and what is expected of him in terms
of output once the game is started.
This mode does have one drawback
though — it seems to be aimed at
someone on about the third grade
reading level, making what should
take 5-10 minutes take much longer.

The documentation carefully ex-
plains the commodity market, includ-
ing the difference between specula-
tors and hedgers, as well as long and
short positions. Also included are price
change factors and predicting price
change factors. Price changes in the
game are far from random, but are
reflective of what is going on in the
world. The gamer is kept up to date on
the news with a scan through the
financial journal before each turn's
transactions.

When you first play Tycoon, you
start with a $10,000 net worth and
novice status. As your worth grows,
you advance to investor, speculator,
professional, broker and tycoon. At
the first two levels only long positions
are available and only commodities
like wheat, cattle, coffee, heating oil
and lumber are available.

When you get to speculator, the
short positions become an option.
Even further up the ladder gold and
silver are possibilities.

Up to 14 different players can save
game status to the disk. Game status
will save only your status and your net
worth. One game can be saved at a
time, and that will keep the complete
game status, including the market en-
vironment.

Menu selection for the gamer at
each turn makes it easy to pick
whether to display graphs, take or li-
quidate positions, display portfolio,
display prices or the news or save
the game.

44 Electronic Games

COMPUTER GAMING

The graphics for this game won't be
anything to send your friends ooohing
and aaahing in front of your monitor,
but once it becomes familiar what
each graph is and what it represents,
they are most helpful and quite easy to
follow.

Tycoon is hardly a quick hour's fun.
It could even be over the head of some
who haven't paid attention closely
enough to the financial pages. But
those who wish they had money to risk
can now see how wisely they could
invest in say . . . pork bellies?

(Rick Teverbaugh)

RAILS WEST

Strategic Simulations/Apple II/48K Disk

The fascination for trains often sur-
faces at an early age. Some children
are fortunate enough to be able to
drift off to sleep with the sound of the
locomotive whistle whining in the dis-
tance.

That early attraction often manifests
itself in the hobby of model railroad-
ing. The collection of scale trains has
recently enjoyed an upswing in pop-
ularity.

But what of the men who first plot-
ted the real railroads' progress across
this nation? What were the problems,
physically and financially, that put
obstacles in the paths of the iron
horses' trek westward at the end of the
19th century?

Certainly the money problems were
among the worst. It took a great deal
of cash outlay before any profits could
be realized.

Rails West attempts to uncover the
problems of financing these ventures,
while putting the difficulties into a
game form. The game does tend to
simplify some rather complex situa-
tions for the sake of making the game
playable for those without a detailed
historical background in the time per-
iod.

Probably the best game plan is for
the player to try and help a railroad
that he owns all of or part of into finan-
cial well-being. Investments can be
made in low price bonds of railroads
that are close to reorganization and
the gamer can play the stock market
without trying to control any of the
railroads, always keeping a watchful
eye on any who are facing impending
reorganization.

The game has two scenarios. The

longer one covers a 30-year period
and has two winners — one who
accumulates the greatest wealth over
that time period and one who
accumulates the greatest number of
adjusted points. The shorter scenario
deals with a five-year period and the
winner is the one with greatest wealth .

A railroad makes money mostly by
carrying traffic and the more cities that
are connected to an existing railroad,
the more traffic that line will be able
to carry. But sometimes the buying
and selling of bonds at the right times
is just as reliable a way to get cash.

The player will also want to strike a
solid balance between his railroad's
viability and his own net worth. A rail-
road's viability is based on a healthy
ratio of its ability to make money and
on its debts.

In Rails West, one to eight players
can play at a time, with the computer
controlling up to four players. The
game map shows 33 cities connected
by 68 potential or actual rail lines.

In a player action phase, the gamer
might buy or sell securities, buy or sell
stock, sell bonds, apply for or repay a

loan, start a new railroad, read a map,
read an account, control a railroad or
recall a railroad loan.

Then in the railroad action phase the
gamer might sell or buy stocks and
loans, repay bank loans, resign control
charter a line, raise efficiency, build
new lines, change dividend, pay inter-
est, float securities or merge.

Like most of the complex SSI games,
every attempt has been made to work
the gamer into things slowly and with
as much background as possible, start-
ing with a well-written rules booklet
and some playing aid cards. There are
two pages of short rules just to get you
started and eight pages of full rules
once you get the hang of the game.

Also included is a concise historical
background, a glossary and an appen-
dix. The game's graphics won't be the
life of the party, but the maps that are
included do exactly the job needed.

Perhaps Rails West doesn't quite
substitute for hauling out the old
Lionel set, but it is a challenging taste
of the financial workings of the late
19th century railroads.

(Rick Teverbaugh)

ARTICLES OF WAR

UNDER SOUTHERN SKIES

Avalon Hill/Apple II/48K Disk

In December of 1936, in the waters
of the south Atlantic, the German
battleship Graf Spree prowled Allied
shipping like a wolf following a tasty
flock of sheep. In this case, the
shepherds, in the form often full battle
groups, saved the day.

The Graf Spree would later face the
challenge of the combined might of

UNDER SOUTHERN SKIES (AVALON HILL)

HM.S. Exeter, Ajax and Achilles. It did
not survive.

Avalon Hill's simulation of the final
battle, played either as the Graf Spree
in solitaire mode against the computer
or as a full two-player game, is one of
the most interesting re-creations of
that battle we have seen. It is both
playable and varied, although with
some rough edges.

There are two interrelated games —
the strategic and the tactical — which
may be played separately or sequen-
tially as a campaign game. The units
involved may be strictly historical, or
the British player can choose or be
assigned ships which were historically
available, although were not a part of
the real-life mission. The strategic
game, played on a video map of the
south Atlantic, is a sort of hide-and-
seek-and-destroy wherein the Graf
Spree and its supply ship, the Altmark,
maneuver and patrol while the English
try to find them. The tactical game

Electronic Games 45

COMPUTER GAMING

simulates the actual ship-to-ship com-
bat following the outcome of the
strategic portion.

The first thing one can't help but
notice on the strategic display is that
almost no advantage at all has been
taken of the Apple N's hi-res color dis-
play capabilities. The map is a simple
outline drawing of the region of the
South Atlantic, a most primitive white-
on-black graphic compared to what
other games now offer. But this lack of
graphic sophistication need not neces-
sarily detract from game-play.

An invisible gridwork divides the sea
into squares which the Graf Spree and
Altmark sail through in the course of a
turn, which simulates 12 real-time
hours. A pad of maps that comes with
the game has the grid drawn in so that
the gamer may better see the coordin-
ates of each square, as well as plot
movement and track the enemy as
ships become revealed.

Strategically, in this phase, the Graf
Spree is out to sink as many prize ships
as she can. To help her resupply and
rearm are the two neutral ports of Rio
and Montevideo as well as the Altmark.
While the Admiral playing the Graf
Spree side must orchestrate his move-
ments to reflect the supply situation,
supply is not ordinarily a problem un-
less the British player sinks the
Altmark.

The German player may enter five
commands during the strategic
phase. He may patrol within a current
sea zone, hoping for a target vessel,
change course and speed, resupply
from Altmark, sink a prize ship with
torpedo or gun, receive a status report
of fuel reserves, damage status and
grid location, orestablish a rendezvous
point with the Altmark via conference
in the same seazone or by the risky
route of radio.

The pursuing Brit may also patrol,
change course and speed, receive sta-
tus reports, and can also see the loca-
tion of all ships in the British battle
group.

Speeds range from 10 knots (stay in
zone) to 1 5 knots (move a sea zone) to
25 knots (move two sea zones). There
is a charted correlation between dam-
age and the ability to maintain speed,
as well as a realistic relation between
speed and amount of fuel consumed.

Other things "factored into" the
Brit's search include special rules for
aircraft carrier group operations, as

UNDER SOUTHERN SKIES (AVALON HILL)

well as air search (from the Falkland
and Ascension islands as well as South
Africa). And, of course, a merchant
ship in trouble will scream for help —
usually successfully. Weather, in the
form of fog, is also a variable.

Once the ships have found each
other and are in the same sea zone,
play shifts from the strategic display to
the tactical display. The tactical dis-
play, far more colorful than the
strategic mode, includes a silhouette
of the player's own ship, a "radar
screen" showing the relative locations
of the vessels, and a view of the enemy
through binoculars.

Hits are recorded on the ships
visually as the hits are achieved. Again,
however, the graphics tend to be
schematic rather than realistic.

There are only eight commands to
use during tactical combat, but using
them properly and at the right time
can be a true juggling act. A captain
may change course and speed, select
which ship to shoot at (in the case of
running into the GrafSpee), fire main
and secondary guns, launch tor-
pedoes, disengage, display present
course and speed and get a report
from Damage Control. There is also
the option of making smoke during
movement, which decreases the
chances for all ship's gunners.

The computer, of course, decides
the result of the combats on an in-

dividual shot-by-shot basis. But, unlike
many computer game manuals which,
I believe improperly, try to keep secret
what the computer is doing, this man-
ual spells it out so that the player may
make his decisions based on knowl-
edge. Intricate rules govern the effect
of each shell.

Called out in the manual are the
relative strengths of the various shells
fired by the different ships, and even
by different guns aboard the various
combatants. Range of both shells and
torpedoes is historically true. Damage
to ships is calculated by dividing each
ship into ten specific stations or areas,
each of which can sustain so many
hits. The midships level is most impor-
tant, as excess hits from other stations
are applied here and it is when the
midships damage reaches maximum
that the ship is considered sunk.

Actually obtaining a hit on the
enemy means that the computer will
calculate and relate the enemy's
speed, range, number of guns firing,
and the status of your own damage
control. And, of course, there's the
proverbial "lucky hit" which is a 2%
chance of hitting the target's maga-
zine (ammunition stores).

If you have ever stared in disbelief at
a condescending rules book with a
quote similar to ". . .finding out what
the computer is doing is half the fun",
you will be as thrilled with this man-

46 Electronic Games

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COMPUTER GAMING

UNDER SOUTHERN SKIES (AVALON HILL)

ual as I was. Avalon Hill, at least, un-
derstands that gamers should be not
be kept in the dark solely to make up
for what might be inadequate pro-
gramming of the computer opponent.

In this case, the computer opponent
is a tenacious old sea dog that will
harry you from port to port and send
you to the bottom of the briny many
times until you finally get even.

Victory conditions are achieved in
both the strategic and tactical phases
and are combined in the campaign
game.

Strategically, the German must sink
merchant shipping, sink Brit warships,
complete a month-long cruise, not be
damaged, and even return to Ger-

many if possible at the end of the
month. The British player must try to
protect merchants and either close
with the Graf Spree or keep it bottled
up in a neutral port.

Once the tactical phase begins, the
British get various victory points for
damage to the Graf Spree's damage
stations, with a bonus for sinking the
Graf Spree. The German player earns
points for sinking each of the various
ships opposing, or fewer points for
forcing a disengagement.

As an overall strategy, the German
player should not lose sight of the fact
that it is best to avoid tactical combat.
If the German gets through un-
discovered he has a fully-won game.
Of course, then you don't get to see
the tactical display, but the priority
should be winning. The British player
must close, and so must develop a
better-than-random search pattern.

Under Southern Skies is an excellent
game with much play value and re-
ward in the form of historical simula-
tion. If only the graphics were slightly
better, it could be rated as a war-
gaming classic.

(Neil Shapiro)

ELECTRONIC

PRESSBOX

CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING

Sierra/IBM PCjr/128K Disk

Sports simulations take one gigantic
step forward with the debut of this
knockout boxing simulation by Dave
and Barry Murry. This is the dream-
come-true for every pacifistic armchair
pugilist — all the primal thrills of men
committing legalized assault and may-
hem along with the soul-easing
knowledge that none of it is real!

It will also, of course, appeal to
blood-thirsty savages.

The program features a library of
the heavyweight champions, plus all
the modern contenders and the cham-
pions from the other divisions. There's
also room for self-created warriors —
the gym holds over fifty fighters. Box-
ers' stats encompass 21 separate
categories, rating everything from
physical dimensions to endurance and

killer instinct. Scoring ("10 point must"
or "rounds"), time of rounds, number
of rounds, mode and lots more can be
modified with the flick of a key.

What's so outstanding about this
program is its scope. Fighters can be
matched in straight computer sim-
ulations, or the strategy mode. One
gamer manages against the computer,
or two may go head to head. Players
choose the fighter's strategy before
the round ("Work on the head", "jab,
keep him away from you," etc.), but
once the bell rings all they can do is
order either a KO blitz or have their
gladiators cover up. As the fight pro-
gresses, options change. After a rough
round, you may only be able to work
on a cut and have to forget strategy.
Like the way your boy's doing? Pat
him on the back — or else dump ice
water down his trunks!

Finally, for really skilled arcaders,
there's a mode in which the player
must select each move.

The realism is awesome. A fighter's
strength is always taken into con-
sideration. Got a man fighting
Cooney? Then "Stay away from his
left" will likely turn up as an early op-
tion.

The graphics are extraordinary.
Although the boxers only move left
and right, their articulated movement
demands great amounts of ring savvy.
Boxers so closely mimic the styles of
the men they're represent that, they
begin to look like them.

Players quickly learn that the "tale
of the tape" can be highly misleading.
Marciano is a 4-5 underdog and looks
like he shouldn't even be in the ring
with Gerry Cooney, but Rocky
dumped him in the ninth round. Just
running tournaments can be a blast
Jack Johnson, under my guidance, is
current kingpin, having finally taken
the measure of Ali, dominating the

48 Electronic Games

COMPUTER GAMING

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CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING (SIERRA)

Brown Bomber and out-pointing the
Rock. You can also have the perverted
thrill of letting Smokin' Joe Frazier
obliterate his son, Marvis.

There are a few gripes. Why do we
get the Duran of today instead of the
legendery Manos de Piedras? And in-
stand replays, even if they're not in
slow motion, would be great!

But there's so much here, only a
grouch could really find serious fault
with this program. The documentation
is excellent: a detailed How-To-Play
booklet, a boxing clinic, a special list of
the PCjr commands, and a well-
researched history of the sport (to
familiarize gamers with older fighters)
are included in the package.

Championship Boxing is a state-of-
the-art masterpiece that will leave you
begging for an update disk next year
when a new crop of bashers has in-
vaded the squared circle.

(Bill Kunkel)

FOOTBALL

Atari/Atari computers/Cartridge

Computer football games run the
gamut from straight, arcade-style ac-
tion to pure strategy and play calling.
Most, however, settle somewhere in
between, such as Atari's new cartridge
contest for its computer line.

Football offers gamers a wide selec-
tion of plays (presented here on sheets
using upside/rightside graphics so that
both team captains can scan them sim-
ultaneously) both on offense and de-
fense. The running game, in particular,
gets a workout here, since backs can
be moved with a fluid ease not seen on
any other version of the pigskin classic.
For the first time, players can feel the
simulated movement along the line as
the ball is snapped. Backs can go end
around or look for a hole to open up
and then punch through. So much lati-
tude is given to runners, in fact, that

they can stop-and-start, or even run
backwards a few yards, without the
certainty of being dumped for a loss.
Change-of-direction plays work es-
pecially well since this program clearly
favors the offense. Defenders can't
simply make contact with a ball carrier
and expect to bring him down, but
must make a clean hit.

Football uses an overhead view,
with players seen from the side. The
gridiron scrolls horizontally, and a run
all the way down field takes about as
long as the real thing. The graphics are
unspectacular, but in this contest, the
play's the thing. Screen passes,
bombs, interceptions and runbacks,
punts and field goals are all integrated
into the action sufficiently well to rank
this as the most complete, non-
strategic football simulation on the
market (though some players will still
prefer Gamestar's version).

This is primarily a two-player
game, but gamers wishing to practice
their offense can do so solitaire against
the computer. Football games are a
matter of taste, more so than arcade or
strategy contests even, but Atari's ver-
sion should please most of the people
most of the time.

(Will Richardson)

SUMMER GAMES

Epyx/ Commodore 64/Disk

The next summer Olympics is four
years away, butthis finely-crafted pro-
gram gives home arcaders the chance

to test their mettle in eight varied
sporting events. Most of the contests
involve one on-screen athlete at a
time, but two humans can go head-to-
head in swimmingand runningevents.

Platform diving is probably the most
aesthetically pleasing portion of Sum-
mer Games. Manipulating the joystick
puts the diver through a succession of
tucks, spins and pikes on the way to
splashdown, after which each judge
rates the performance on the usual
10.0-to-1.0 scale. Gymnastics, which
focuses on the horse, is similarly ap-
pealing.

The play-mechanic for the two
swimming events is especially clever.
The arcader presses the action button
each time a swimmer's arm is about to
slice into the water. Good timing pro-
duces a more powerful stroke and a
better time^ Although the 100-
meter dash utilizes the left-right-left
joystick jiggle, the relay works on a
more intriguing principle. The runner
with the baton goes all-out when the
stick is left at the center position and
coasts when it is moved left. A fatigue
bar located at the bottom of the screen
helps the gamer judge how each run-
ner gains and loses energy during the
course of the race.

The other events on the disk are
pole vault and skeet shooting. The
former, a test of coordination, is the
more captivating. Getting above 5.1
meters on a vault takes a great set of
reflexes.

SUMMER GAMES (EPYX)

Electronic Games 49

COMPUTER GAMING

From the opening ceremony with its
stirring theme and sophisticated an-
imation, Summer Games is a joy to the
eyes and ears. The programmers have
even included an abridged version of
the national anthem for each of the 1 8
countries which the gamer can choose

to represent. (Actually, there are only
17 countries. The 18th is Epyx, with
the music from Jumpman as its official
song.)

Summer Games definitely earns a
gold medal.

(Arnie Katz)

PLAYING IT SMART

AEGEAN VOYAGE

By Joyce Hakansson Assoc.
Spinnaker/C-64/Cartridge

Feel like a cruise to the Greek Is-
lands? Aegean Voyage puts players at
the helm of a sailing ship, then sends
them on a journey to collect lost trea-
sures. This Mediterranean action
adventure for one seafarer, age 8 to
adult, or two people taking turns, in-
troduces characters and places in
Greek mythology. But its educational
value is subtle. It helps players learn to
keep notes and plan strategies, as they
choose which Greek islands to search
and which to pass over.

The explorer uses a joystick to steer a
nicely depicted skiff over azure waters
and dock at mountainous island ports.
The musical score by Ed Bogas pro-
vides a pleasant background to the
voyage. At each anchorage, the Ora-
cle offers a clue about the other ports
— Oracles never talk about their own
homes. There are two kinds of clues.
One type tells about another island;
for example, "Rhodes is mysterious."
Other clues reveal what monsters enjoy
or hate; for example, "Creatures avoid
grungy islands."

Then the adventurer must choose
whether to seach that island. There are
fabulous treasures hidden on some of

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AEGEAN VOYAGE (SPINNAKER)

them, but if the isle is occupied by one
of the mythological beasts that roam
this part of the world, the ship is sunk.

The object is to locate nine lost anti-
quities, such as the Chariot of Apollo,
the Golden Apples, the Shield of Achil-
les, and other famous treasures. By
keeping track of the clues, the gamer
can predict which isles are safe and
which are inhabited by monsters.
Clues and treasures are randomly re-
distributed after each game, to keep
the contest fresh.

Among the obstacles to successful
completion of the hunt is Zeus, who
still reigns in the Aegean. He per-
iodically appears in the sky, hurling
lightning bolts which travelers must
dodge.

The Aegean Sea is a treacherous
place, and sudden storms have dashed
many good ships against its rocky
coastlines. The best way to weather
one of these tempests is to hold the
boat steady in deep water, well away
from the island ports, until the weather
clears.

(Joyce Worley)

WIZTYPE

By Sydney Development Corp.
Sierra/ Ap, At, C-64,
IBM PC/Disk or Cartridge

Johnny Hart's famous cartoon strip
"The Wizard of Id" provides the on-
screen personnel to help computerists
polish their typing skills. Letters or
words are thrown onto the screen by
the Spirit, to be matched by the
would-be typist. If successful, the
Wizard hurls a lightning bolt at the
Spirit. But if the typist fails to duplicate
the lessons assigned by the Spirit, that
crusty character turns into a fire-
breathing dragon who crisps the
Wizard until he's just a pile of ash.

The gamer enters his name when
starting each lesson — the program

IbciZTYPE

A TYPING GAME TOR AGES 8 a UP

# SIERRA

WIZTYPE (SIERRA)

can keep track of up to 60 separate
students — then sees a graph of per-
sonal statistics from previous sessions.
The program features first drill, prac-
tice, word and game modes, each with
20 difficulty levels. Once the typist has
acquired some skill, it's time to move
on to paragraph mode, or to create his
or her own lessons.

The drill, practice, word and game
mode all work similiarly — the student
must type the letters thrown by the
Spirit. The game starts at 10 words per
minute, and increases by 5 WPM for
each level completed. The other modes
allow the practicing typist to set the
level of speed.

The paragraphs are drawn from
classic literature, such as Tale of Two
Cities, Hamlet and Mother Goose,
and the student sets the rate of speed.
Then Bung, the King's Jester from the
cartoon strip, jumps from letter to let-
ter on a pogo stick as he paces the
typist.

This is an excellent typing tutor
that's particularly suitable for young
people. The cartoon graphics look ex-
actly as they do in the funny papers,
and the on-screen antics of Johnny
Hart's characters add an element of
pleasure to the lessons. Special jokes,
randomly appearing as word balloons
from the Spirit and Wizard, help keep
the practice sessions lively. The pro-
gram follows standard typing tutoring
methods. Letter combinations are de-
signed to teach beginners to touch-
type without looking at the keyboard.

50 Electronic Games

COMPUTER GAMING

W1ZTYPE (SIERRA)

The program constantly monitors the
typist's speed so the student can see
how well he/she is doing.

The statistical records are a little dis-
appointing. The gamer's high score in
the game is displayed and a line graph
showing high and low speeds from the
lessons. It would have been better if
the graph were replaced by the actual
words per minute typed. The
documentation, too, is a bit weak. It's
designed to be entertaining and invit-
ing to students, but gives very little real
information. One plus: the package
includes a handy reference card with a
finger placement chart so beginners
will know exactly which finger to use
on each key.

Despite these minor shortcomings,
The Wizard of IcTs WizType is a
guaranteed winner for anyone who'd
like to learn to touch-type, or even for
experienced typists who what to brush
up their speed.

(Joyce Worley)

QWERTY'S ALPHABET
ADVENTURE

By Shadow Lawn Press

Hayden Book/ Software/ Apple /48K Disk

Qwerty the caterpillar guides
youngsters through the alphabet, in
this storybook/computer software
combination. It helps kids learn their
letters, while teaching them a little
about the computer keyboard, as they
hunt for the next character to make a
new scene appear.

The program runs through the
alphabet letter by letter. First Qwerty
asks the child to push "A", and a large
block-print character appears on-
screen, along with the smiling caterpil-
lar. Then he asks the child to push "A"
again to see a picture of an apple. After
the apple is displayed, Qwerty says,
"Now can you find the letter B?"

The child moves through the alpha-
bet in this way. Each letter is illustrated
by some kind of food (except for X,
where they took some liberties.) When
Qwerty has completed all 26 letters,
he slowly metamorphoses into a but-
terfly to complete the adventure.

The accompanying book is a story
for parents to read to the child while
the program runs. It is all about Qwer-
ty and his adventures, and leads step
by step through the program by in-
structing the user to push letters at
appropriate times to make on-screen
pictures. The story reinforces the
learning experience, as well as provid-
ing some colorful pictures and drawing
the child's attention to other words
starting with the same letter.

The graphics are simple and un-
complicated with no animation be-
yond the caterpillar's fetching smile.
The designers wanted the computer
graphics to add a degree of excitement

QWERTY'S ALPHABET ADVENTURE (HAYDEN)

to the book, rather than the other way
around, so Qwerty's Alphabet Adven-
ture is less ornate than some other
alphabet tutors. Yet most children will
probably end up playing with the com-
puter alone after going through the
text once or twice with a parent, and
the program does stand alone, with an
ease of operation that makes it suit-
able for beginners.

(Joyce Worley)

ERNIE'S MAGIC SHAPES

By Children's Television Workshop
CBS Software/ Atari, C-64/Disk

It's Ernie from Sesame Street, and
this time he's helping kids ages 3 to 6
acquire visual discrimination as they
match colors and shapes under his
gentle tutorage.

Parents choose one of six games,
each a trifle harder than the last. Then
Ernie appears on stage to do his magic

ERNIE'S MAGIC SHAPES (CBS)

act First he waves his baton and a
shape appears above his head. An-
other flourish of the wand, and a form
appears on the table beside him. The
child pushes one key if the two are the
same and another if they're different.
If the youngster makes a wrong
choice, Ernie just shakes his head no,
then waits for the child to push the
other button. A correct response
makes Ernie nod his head, smile, and
move the shape from the table up be-
side its mate over his head. Then Ernie
conjures up a bunny, with a wave of
his magic wand. It appears on the
table and does a celebration dance..

The beginning levels of the game
feature simple shapes, like a block, cir-
cle or triangle. In advanced levels, the
constructions are more complex,
made of several shapes and colors
together.

This is an extremely easy program
for very young children to use with a
parent's help. Graphics are spare and
uncomplicated. The stage is framed by
attractive blue drapes, with a red ceil-
ing and floor. The brightly colored
geometries in each match-game stand
out boldly against the white back-
ground. Ernie is completely recogniz-
able, and his engaging grin as he nods
approval to the child is very encourag-
ing. There's no hand-eye coordination
skill needed, so Ernie's Magic Shapes
is usable by even the youngest com-
puterists.

Very young children will need par-
ental assistance to load the program.
Rather than using the standard LOAD
"*", 8, 1, the disk requires the com-
puterist to type LOAD "ERNIE", 8, 1 .
Then instead of merely typing "run",
the computerist must key in SYS
28672 to make the program boot. For-
tunately, a convenient Reference Card
includes these instructions.

(Joyce Worley)

Electronic Games 51

COMPUTER GAMING

ENTERTAINMENTS

PAINT MAGIC

By Mark Riley
Datamost/C-64/Disk

Anybody can be an artist using Paint
Magic. This joystick-operated art pro-
gram offers would-be illustrators plen-
ty of options to make it easy to create
on-screen spectaculars.

The command menu offers 15 col-
ors. Among the many options are
drawing straight lines, boxes, circles,
rays and points. Fill in with solid colors,
horizontal, vertical or diagonal stripes,
or even patterns (such as tweed or
checks, or your own design.) The pro-
gram lets you transpose scenes from
one painting to another or even merge
two canvasses together. One unusual
mode lets the computerist enter a
Magnify Mode, then create pixel by
pixel detail. Color Mask lets the artist
change the hue of each detail by paint-
ing over colors with new ones. A "grab"
option lets the computerist pick up an
image from one canvas, then stamp it
onto another screen. There are eleven
pictures on disk for the computerist to
play around with before starting on
one of his/her own.

Paint Magic is easy to use. An on-
screen command menu helps com-
puterists remember the options, and
the manual is clear and concise. The
many special effects available make it

PAINT MAGIC (DATAMOST)

a snap to create a good-looking pic-
ture, even for someone who is normal-
ly all thumbs artistically.

(Joyce Worley)

STUDIO 64

En-Tech Software /C-64/ Disk

Studio 64 turns the Commodore 64
into a music studio and makes every
key-puncher a composer. Even some-
one who has no musical training can
have fun experimenting with the key-
board tones, then hearing them play-
ed back by the computer. But the pro-
gram works best for musicians who
can read music.

The would-be composer enters notes
by playing them on the console just
like stroking piano keys, and the com-
puter writes them onto a bass or treble
clef. A built-in music processor works
just like a word processor to let
musicians delete bad notes,
move blocks of music or re-
peat sections.

But Studio 64 does more than just
let the computerist enter a line of
melody. It actually permits the entry of
three voices, for a melody, harmony
and bass line. Each voice line is entered
separately, and the composer can use
eight octaves and four different wave-
forms to introduce varied tonal quali-
ties while playing the keyboard.

When the composer has finished
keying in the voice lines, the computer
offers a choice of how fast to play it
and how many times to repeat the
composition. Then it combines the
three voice lines and plays them back
with the tonal colorations entered by
the computerist.

The composer can enter music by
playing the keyboard in real time or
note by note. The attack, decay, sus-
tain and release settings can be ad-
justed to create various instrument or
synthesizer sounds. The filters and re-
sonance can also be reset, so the com-
puter can produce an almost limitless
variety of tones. The computerist also
chooses the background color and
character hue to suit, so the notations

„ •

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STUDIO 64 (EN'TECH)

will be colorful and pleasing to the eye.

Only the voice line being entered is
shown on-screen, although the com-
puterist can call up one note at a time
from the other voices to use for editing
purposes. It would make music writing
a tad simpler if all three voice lines
could be displayed at the same time.

The "help" screen contains full in-
structions and a diagram to aid com-
puterists in remembering the key-
board. Since this isn't visible while
entering music, it would also have
been helpful if the documentation had
included a printout of this information.

The disk contains five sample songs
to show what the program can do in
the right hands. They're all super
("Sweet Dreams" is a real piece of
virtuosity), and provide real inspiration
to beginners.

52 Electronic Games

COMPUTER GAMING

The Commodore 64 has sound
capabilities that equal and surpass
many synthesizers. Studio 64 helps
musicians unlock these tonal qualities,
to create songs of their own that make
use of all these varied possibilities.

(Joyce Worley)

STORYTREE

By George Brackett

Scholastic Wizware/ Apple/ '48K Disk

StoryTree is just the thing for fans of
do-it-yourself interactive fiction. This
program lets computerists pen stories
up to 100 pages long — with many
"branches" — to create different plots
leading to varied endings. Designed to
help kids 8 and over learn to write
compositions, StoryTree is an
entertainment that even adults will
enjoy.

Computerists can read one of three
tales included on the disk, or work on a
yarnoftheirown. Reading a twistaplot
adventure is child's play. The compu-
ter offers a choice of directions the
plot can take at the end of each page
then the narrative unfolds accordingly,
turning every story into interactive fic-
tion.

But the real fun starts when the
computerist writes his own. On-screen
prompts guide the computerist each
step of the way, and the built-in word
processor makes it easy to edit and
correct mistakes. At the end of each

STORYTREE (SCHOLASTIC)

page the writer chooses whether to
continue with no branchings, or to
offer choices of how the plot should
turn. The program takes care of every-
thing. All the creator has to do is key in
the story, so it's all fun and no work.

It's easy to start creating stories,
mysteries, games or even data bases
using StoryTree. The on-screen prompts
are sufficient to lead a beginner
through the creative process. But ad-
vanced computertists will find lots of
help and suggestions for different
ways to use the program in the well-
written manual that comes with it.

StoryTree is a helpful tool for be-
ginning authors that provides hours of
fun for anyone who enjoys creating
their own text adventures.

(Joyce Worley)

TRANSLATIONS

SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD

The royal court should bestow full
honors on the electronic con-
quistadors who sailed this program to
a new system and landed it in such fine
shape. The C-64 edition is essentially
the same as the one which delighted
Atarians early this year, which means
it's one of the best action -strategy
games you can feed into a disk drive.

The graphics are a little different
than the first version, but they're cer-
tainly attractive in their own right.
Even the great amount of disk activity
which occurs during the course of play
doesn't seem to have caused much of

SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD (ELECTRONIC ARTS)

a problem.

In Seven Cities, the player-explorer
sails to the New World after securing
patronage and outfitting an expedi-

tion back in Europe. Mapping the
geography, interacting with the na-
tives and founding missions earn the
globetrotter fame and fortune upon
return to his or her homeland. You can
either encounter North and South
America as Columbus found them in
1492 orallowthe program to generate
a totally new hemisphere to tame.
There's provision for saving current
status between play-sessions, so most
players will want to make a whole
series of transoceanic voyages before
starting all over again with fresh con-
tinents.
Bon Voyage!

(Arnie Katz)

ROBOTRON: 2084

AtariSoft/yiC-20/ Cartridge

The situation is grave indeed. The
last bastion of the American ideal, the
family, is under attack by an over-
whelming army of robots bent on the
destruction of the human race. It is up
to you, brave soldier, to destroy the
evil Robotrons and rescue Mommy,
Daddy, and Mikey before they are
either ground under the oppressive
heels of the robots, or turned into soul-
less, deadly Progs. That's the plot be-
hind Robotron 2084.

Essentially an update of Berzerk,
Robotron takes the paranoid atmos-
phere of the Stern classic and increases
it tenfold by literally cramming the
board with more robots than you can
shake a laser at. Atari's adaptation is
quite faithful to the original, given the
VIC-20's limitations. Graphics are col-
orful and reasonably well-detailed,
although the family has lost the '50s
textbook look that helped identify the
victims from the bad guys.

The only place that this version real-
ly fails is in a particularly slow delay
between hitting the action button and
the firing of the hero's laser weapon.
Players are best off leaning on the but-
ton to take advantage of the laser's
rapid-fire capability to survive.

Fans of the arcade game may grum-
ble over being limited to one joystick
to control this version (the arcade ori-
ginal uses two). But, besides that
restriction, there's a good chance
gamers will find this Robotron well up
to the high standards set by other
Atarisoft titles. If you're looking for
action, then Robotron 2084 is a must.
(Dan Persons) Q

Electronic Games 53

fflME

*mm

Shoot Now and
Ask Questions Later

By FRANK TETRO r JR.

TIME PILOT

Coleco/Coleco Vision

Time Pilot asks players to pilot a jet
through time, destroying various types
of enemy aircraft. The first wave con-
sists of World War I biplanes. After
that, WWII planes are encountered.
The next attack is from sophisticated
helicopters, and the final battle is with
advanced and dangerous jet fighters.

The optimal strategy for Time Pilot
isn't terribly intricate. The main tip is to
keep changing course constantly. The
longer your plane stays fixed in any
one direction, the better the enemy
tracks your ship and fires on it. If you
constantly change directions, they
have less chance of picking you off.

It's a good idea to fire constantly,
instead of just firing when you think
someone's in range. Although this
gets tiring, it gives you a better chance
of unexpectedly hitting a target who
may suddenly appear from a border or
turn into your line of fire.

Once the main target appears, focus
your attention on destroying him.
Don't risk your life to hit him all 5 times
at once. If you miss you can always
turn around and attack from the other
side as long as you don't let him leave
the screen border.

Paratroopers are worth a lot of
points, and should be blasted whenev-
er possible. However, if you're headed
for one and a whole squadron sudden-
ly appears behind him, forget the hero
bit and save your necK!

54 Electronic Games

Once the helicopter level is reached,
the player is assaulted with a very
powerful weapon — the homing mis-
sile. These babies track you relentlessly
and should be shot down as soon as
possible. If one is on your trail, swing
around quickly (you can turn faster
than they can), come back around be-
hind the missile and shoot it down.

Time Pilot is a fast game, which re-
quires good coordination, and alot of
practice. Just remember you have an
unlimited ammo supply and a swarm
of enemy planes to defeat — so shoot
now, and ask questions later!

POPEYE

Parker Brothers/ Atari 800

Popeye pits the player against the
arch enemies Brutus and Seahag as he
tries to catch presents thrown at him
by his love Olive Oyl. It is necessary to
catch a certain number of these prizes
on each level before the player may
advance to a new level.

Screen 7: The main strategy in this
screen (as with all of them) is to keep
on the move. Never stay in any spot
too long. Your main enemy is of
course, Brutus. Try to avoid being di-
rectly above or below him. Even being
on the same level is safe because you
can still punch the bottles he throws at
you. Try not to let the hearts fall into
the water because then Popeye has to
scramble for it, and because some-
times Brutus just won't leave the bot-
tom level, it often causes death.

Try never to clear a screen without
using the spinach, as punching out
Brutus is worth a lot of bonus points
The same holds true for the falling
barrel trick.

Screen 2: This screen is a touch more
difficult since there are a lot of ways
to accidentally fall through the floor. In
this level, if you stay on the bottom
screen and go back and forth, Brutus
won't come down after you. He'll just
try to reach down to grab you.

Avoid his arm (which can be de-
tected by his sudden stop) and keep
moving back and forth catching the
notes. Try and grab the sweet pea sign
if you think you can time it right, but
don't risk your life for it, it's not worth
it!

Screen 3: The third and final screen

"w^^

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P I L T
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TIME PILOT (COLECO)

is by far the most difficult because it
adds a new enemy — the hawk.
Although the hawk can be punched
out, he still can be quite a nuisance. In
this screen, it's even more important
that you constantly keep moving. Bru-
tus is at his smartest now and will track
our favorite spinach-eater relentlessly
Catch all the letters, and watch out for
Seahag's bottles, which are almost
camouflaged in the brown back-
ground. If the hawk attacks, you
should either get off the level or turn
and punch him out

When Popeye completes the third
screen, the game will start back at
screen 1 at an accelerated speed and
difficulty. Don't panic, Popeye! Just
keep on the move, and stay strong to
the finish!

BURGERTIME

Mattel Electronics/IBM-PC, PCjr

The object of BurgerTime is to
build hamburgers as fast as possible,
while avoiding the killer sausages,
eggs and pickles. The key strategy
here is to learn the patterns of the
enemy. The killer foods never seem to
move up more than one ladder at a
time. They will go up a ladder, move
across a floor, and then go up another
ladder, etc. Use this to your advan-
tage. Try to crush the enemy food with
a falling hamburger piece, as this not
only gets you points, but it gets them
off your trail temporarily.

The best way to clear a screen is to
start at the top and work your way
down. This is far easier than haphaz-
ardly running around the screen, and
it will tend to help you squish the
monsters as they come up after you.
Try to tempt the nasties out onto a
burger piece and then drop it, causing
the nasty to fall. Not only does this
earn a lot of bonus points, but it also
forces the foodstuff to make the gruel-
ing climb back up in order to get you.
Use your pepper only as a last resort,
as it will be desperately needed in the
higher levels. When a bonus prize
appears in the middle, make every
effort to get it — it earns you an extra

1 UP DDODDD TDP DDDDDD 2 UP DDDDDD

POPEYE (PARKER BROS.)

pepper unit.

Above all, avoid going into dead
ends when the nasties are on yourtrail.
Try to take care of tricky areas in the
beginning of the game, because there
are fewer nasties around then.

The key to success in BurgerTime is

a lot of practice. Don't become frus-
trated if you push a key and the burger
chef doesn't seem to respond in-
stantly. This is normal, and in time you
will learn to cope with it. With a little
practice you'll be a burger maniac in
no time! G

BURGERTIME (MATTEL)

t£fij*<

Electronic Games 55

Railroad Simulator
Keeps Engineers on the Track

By DAVID LUSTIG

Vou're the engineer of a fast-mov-
ing Santa Fe freight train. At your
fingertips is the throttle that controls
four diesel-electric locomotives, each
one generating 3,600 horsepower.
Between you and the caboose, some
half-mile behind are 75 refrigerator
cars loaded with west coast per-
ishables — lettuce, potatoes and
melons — being rushed to east coast
markets. The speedometer needle sits
contentedly at 69 miles per hour as the
train hurtles through the flat Kansas
countryside.

The slight pitch and roll of the 200-
ton locomotive is relaxing as you reach
for the air horn cord to sound for an
upcoming highway crossing. Two long
blasts, followed by a short one and
another long echo from the claxton as
the horizontal crossing gates whiz by,
their red lights and bells quickly

railroad — Santa Fe, Southern Pacific,
Burlington Northern, Norfolk Southern
— and you find a simulator While all
are slightly different depending on the
specific needs of the individual rail-
road, all are in use to provide the same
end results: to safely train new em-
ployees and retrain grizzled veterans.
One such simulator is used by the
Santa Fe Railway. While having the
added capability of being mobile —

the computer create a visual experi-
ence so vivid that thinking it's the "real
thing" is commonplace.

This sophisticated piece of imitation
is from the Link Group of Singer-
General Precision, Inc., the people
who have made airplane trainers for
both military and civilian applications
almost since the dawn of aviation.
Almost every pilot has had experience
with a Link trainer at one point in his or
her career, and messing up on the
ground has always provided invalu-
able experience for the real thing in the
wild blue yonder.

But back to the Santa Fe.

Located inside this converted
passenger car, its windows blanked
out to allow no outside light to distract
from the operation, sits the complete
cab and front hood of a modern diesel-
electric locomotive. When the en-

ABOARD!

drowned out by the roar of the
locomotives.

An alarm bell rings on the control
stand next to you. The third unit has
developed a malfunction and won't
produce the horsepower it's supposed
to. From your seat you push levers on
the control panel that electrically shut
down the offending diesel, hoping the
remaining three can keep up the pace
and keep you on schedule.

As you look up, there's a stalled
automobile on the railroad tracks!
Grabbing the air horn handle, you
sound the alarm, jam the brakes into
full emergency and watch as, depend-
ing on the inertia of 6800 tons of
freight train, you may or may not hit
the auto. Did you react fast enough?
Did the ailing third diesel distract you
from seeing the car a second earlier
and perhaps avert tragedy?

Welcome to the world of railroad
locomotive simulators. Name a major

56 Electronic Games

not all simulators are — the unit is
usually stationed at Topeka, Kansas.
In reality, you weren't rocketing
across the farmlands, but were
motionless inside a converted railroad
passenger car. Projection screens de-
picting real situations actually photo-
graphed on the Santa Fe and cued to

Camera car used to photograph scenes
for the railroad simulator.

gineer looks straight ahead or to the
left or to the right, it is a perfect dupli-
cate. If he turns around in the real
McCoy, the engineer will see the elec-
trical cabinet and rear wall of the cab.
If he turns around in the simulator,
however, he will see the extra panels
and instrument boards located at the
instructor station.

No, there's no slot for quarters or
tokens, but at an initial cost of
$750,000, both engineer and railroad
had better be able to have this
videogame show not only what it feels
like to be in a locomotive cab, but how
to react when an emergency comes
up.

To make the "videogame" as realis-
tic as possible, five major components
of the simulator have to come
together at the same time.

First and second are the aforemen-
tioned simulated locomotive cab and
instructor's station. Then there is the

motion system, an hydraulic affair that
simulates fore and aft shock, side sway
and roll and cab floor vibrations. As
with airplane simulators, the motion
system provides important cues to
which an engineer responds when
controlling his train.

Then there's the all-important visual
system, scenes of exactly what the en-

Above, a class in procedures and
train handling; below, the pass-
enger car housing the simulator. The
scene, right, is the remarkably real-
istic view of the track from the simulator.

gineer would see during an actual run,
viewed on a rear projection screen. A
16mm projector shows 4,000 feet of
uninterrupted film, depicting a normal
run. A collimatinglens is mounted be-
fore the front window of the cab to
provide a virtual image display, images
up to infinity and with realistic depth.
The lens forces the viewer to refocus
his eyes as he would in the real world
when looking at objects at various dis-
tances.

And finally there is the stereophonic
sound system, duplicating the air
sounds within the cab.

Historically, engineers have had to

learn their skills the hard way; out in
the field. That's fine if you're the only
train on the track and there are no
civilians to stall their cars in front of
you. But on a railroad such as the Santa
Fe, a mainline may have dozens of
trains, in two directions, in a stretch of

what happens when trouble occurs,
which lets the operator make all the
mistakes possible and hurt nothing.
The railroad isn't tied up, the engineer
hasn't put his train all over the coun-
tryside because he applied the brakes
too hard too fast and sent box cars
flying in all directions, and most im-
portantly, mistakes can be made and

track as short as 150 miles. And there
are many highway crossings, blind
curves and "less-than-ideal" sections
of track on even the best of railroads.

"The simulator is a perfect way to
introduce fledgling engineers to train
operation," explains Michael A. Mar-
tin, of the Santa Fe's Public Relations
Department, "as well as retrain veter-
ans when new techniques or locomo-
tives are being brought into the
system.

"The beauty of the simulator is that
we can provide an environment that is
99 percent realistic as far as bouncing
up and down, the feeling of speed,

nobody is injured."

But simulated operation, no matter
how real, can't replace the real thing.

"Of course not," continues Martin,
"and the Santa Fe is keenly aware of
this. What the simulator does is give
the new engineer a better idea of what
he or she can expect in the real world. "

After a grinding course through the
railroad's simulator program, the San-
ta Fe knows their students will be bet-
ter prepared to safely handle a speed-
ing freight train — as well as play
Donkey Kong — thanks to a video
"game." Casey Jones should have
been so lucky. G

Electronic Games 57

By BILL KUNKEL

Punch-Out Scores A Coin-Op KO!

PUNCH-OUT

Nintendo

At a time when most of the arcade
scene is about as exciting as watching
Larry Holmes drub Marvis Frazier, Nin-
tendo has scored a surprise knockout
with its latest coin-op arrival.

Punch-Out is inquestionably the
hottest of the spring coin-op releases,
Utilizing a dual screen — one static,
picturing the combatants and running
their stats, and the other, the action
playfield. Gamers are cast in the role of
pretender to the title and must battle
their way through a variety of skilled
and sometimes awesome contenders.
Take the title and your task becomes
keeping it, and Punch Out is definitely
not a boxer's game. This is brawl time,
kiddies, and only a 10-count KO will
satisfy this blood-thirsty token-eater.

The fighters sport monickers such as
"Glass Joe" (boxing slang for an op-
ponent), "Mr. Sandman", "Pistol Hur-
ricane" and the massive "Bald Bull".
The player, facing an opponent head-
on, is treated to a most interesting
perspective — the surrogate fighter is
almost invisible, his body represented
by widely-spaced matrix lines. This al-
lows arcaders to see their foe more
clearly, and permits the dubious de-
light of watching Mr. Sandman deliver
a shuddering right hook to their pro-
tege's midsection.

Graphics are excellent and the pro-
gram allows virtual full-ring move-
ment. Check out the look of astonish-

58 Electronic Games

ment on Sandman's kisser when you
clock him with a short right. There's
fan reaction and even occasional
appearances by the referee, There are
also extensive audio frills — a voice-
over announces each blow and where

it landed. Players also get to name
their sluggers and are occasionally
taunted by their opponent ("Come
on! Come on!").

The entire contest lasts for one
three-minute round and, again, you
must dump your man for a 10-count.
The momentum is tracked at the top of
the action screen, with damage in-
dicator arrows sweeping back and
forth across the topmost horizontal
column. As the arrows move ever
more swiftly left to right, the player's
man draws near to scoring a knockout.

A tiny joystick — subject to quick
breakage, judging by those we tested
— is used for left/right movement and
for raising or dropping the boxer's
guard. Two small buttons are em-
ployed to throw lefts and rights, while
a large, spring-type palm-sized switch
throws a potential knockout punch.

This game is not recommended for
extended play sessions, since the
fighters don't get any better once the
arcader has completed the circuit. The
game just continues running a loop,
with the machine waiting for you to
get bored and make a mistake.

Don't feel too bad when you make
that mistake, either. If you're still game
to go head-to-dome with, say, Bald
Bull after he's cleaned your clock,
Punch Out has a rematch option.

Good action, excellent graphics and
a fun play-action number Punch-Out
among the best new games in the
arcades today. G

ALAt)t)iNfe

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I p' n pa^ aLLE

Welcome to Arnie's Place

By STEVE MADWED

/^k uestion time: In the midst of
^|P what is being dubbed "the
great arcade slump", who opens a
high-tech emporium full of coin-ops in
the middle of an area not exactly
famous for their arcades of any size?

Answer: a fellow from Westport,
Connecticut named Arnie, and the in-
credible inside-a-jukebox style arcade
he has opened is known, prosaically
enough, as "Arnie's Place".

Arnie acknowledges that there is a
slump, that there are virtually no lux-
ury arcades in the Northeast, and he
has opinions on everything from kids-
'n'-coin-ops to convertible video-
games. Take her away, Arnie.

"There is no doubt that there is a
slump in the coin-op field, but I don't
think it is unique to our industry. I
think that due to "pie-in-the-sky" re-
ports by the media, many people
jumped into operating videogame
arcades, which, for one thing, spread
the number of game players thinner
and, secondly, the great demand for
large numbers of games caused the
factories to gear up production. As a
former manufacturer I can tell you that
once you gear up you have to keep
production flowing; hence, the cir-
culation of some not-very-good
games with poor return on your in-
vestment/'

Any suggestions?

"With the high cost of new equip-

ment and the decline in business,
many of the new operators will fall by
the wayside, leaving the players to
consolidate in the larger, more up-to-
date, better run facilities."

One look around Arnie's Place and
you've got a nearly -perfect idea of
what the man is talking about, The
arcade is lush, magnificently styled
from its spacious, impeccably gar-
dened parking lot to its lavish interior.
Copper ceilings, festooned with gold-
piping track-lights, cast a discreet
golden glow on the scene below. The
coin -ops and foosball tables are
encased in white wood casings.
While purists may be disappointed to
find the gorgeous lathework and decal

art from their favorite coin-ops
obscured by the game-separating,
perfectly shaped wooden arches, they
give the game emporium a coherent,
undeniably stylish overall ambience.
There are even coordinated "child
stands", step-up podiums that give
tyro arcaders the same overview of the

€0 Electronic Games

Photos taken courtesy of Capitol Photos, Bridgeport, CT.

console as the average adult gamer.

The most striking thing about a truly
striking arcade, however, is its uni-
queness. Why aren't there more coin-
op palaces like this in the Northeast?

"To open and maintain an arcade of
our calibre," Arnie explains, "takes a
great capital outlay and most people

do not have the funds. A reason we
were able to make it economically
feasible was due to the fact that we did
most of the work ourselves — design-
ing, construction, etc."

In order to make sure that Westport
loves Arnie's Place, there are strict,
scrupulously-enforced rules. No smo-
king, drinking, or any profane lan-
guage. "At all times," Arnie adds,
"there are a minimum of three uni-
formed attendants on duty to insure
this. We have contacted all the schools
within a 25 mile radius and asked them
for their school calendars. When a
young person unaccompanied by an
adult enters we ask them: 'No school
today?' If they say 'no' we find out
which school they attend and then
check the calendar to see if it checks.
Some schools vary from others for
holiday or break schedules."

Games are selected by a trio of

methods. "One is by player request. If
a great number of our patrons request
a particular game we will usually
purchase one or two. Second is to rely
on some of our distributors — factory
reps — based on reported income at
other operations. Last, but least relia-
ble, is 'hit and miss'. We purchase a
game and hope our clientele will be
attracted to it. The success of a game
varies from location to location de-
pending on the type of customer; their
age, education and cultural back-
ground. A game may earn big in one
location and die in another."

Now warming to his subject, Arnie
gave his opinion on a subject that's
shaking the arcade industry to its
foundations: convertible games. They
are so-called "generic videogames" in
which new games are not purchased
complete, merely new program
boards are obtained to replace those in
yesterday's model. The oJd title mar-
quees and side decals are inter-
changed and, voila!, instant new coin-
op.

"Convertible games," according to
Arnie, "have various effects depend-
ing whether you are looking at it from
a manufacturer's outlook or an oper-
ator's (the person placing the game on
location). For the most part I think it
will help the industry in general."

Finally, we wondered whether or
not ol' Arnie was an arcader himself.
Ever the diplomat, after confessing
that he was, Arnie refused to name a
favorite. "I derive a pleasure from
observing my patrons having fun,
especially young children." Q

Electronic Games 61

Now you can play the movie

AXx.

-***-

v M

v^-

All the flat-out action from the
blockbuster movie returns in this
hot new coin video experience
from Atari.

The FORCE* is with you once
again... You're LUKE SKYWALKER*
rocketing toward the EWOK VIL-
LAGE* on ENDOR*; CHEWBACCA*
manuevering a SCOUT WALKER*
toward the control bunker; and
LANDO CALRISSIAN* in the MIL-
LENNIUM FALCON* battling to de-
stroy the Imperial DEATH STAR*.

Fantastic 3-D animation, music,
sound and voice effects from the

© 1984 Lucastilm Ltd., and Atari Games, Inc. Alt rights reserved.
'Trademarks ol Lucastilm Ltd. used by Atari Games, Inc. under license.

movie, plus eight levels
of increasing difficulty
and a new "Split-Wave"
feature that switches the
action between ENDOR*
and space add up to non-
stop challenge. Lead the
REBELS* to final vic-
tory! Blast the
DEATH STAR* (if
you can). You
are the
only hope

fothe ATARI

ALLIANCE*.

A Warner Communications Company

PLAYERS GUIDE TO

PROGRAMMABLE

SYSTEMS

ATARI 26

• II

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Of the pioneer programm-
able videogame systems, only
Atari's 2600 remains in pro-
duction. It has outlasted such
competition as Bally's Astro-
cade, the Odyssey 2, Fairchild
Channel F, the Arcadia 2001 ,
and even Mattel's Intellivi-
sion. The overwhelming sup-
port from third-party game
manufacturers is the key fac-
tor in the 2600's popularity,
though its durability,
availability and low price con-
tribute heavily.

The availability of Coleco's
2600 adapter for its ColecoVi-
sion had a strong impact on
that machine's early sales fig-
ures. Atari later marketed an
add-on for the Atari 5200 in
its own bid to attract a trade-
up audience. Both modules
are configured a bit dif-
ferently from the button-
and-switch arrays on the
standard 2600, making a few
of the system's more spec-
tacular efforts, like Activi-
sion's Space Shuttle, harder to
master.

The Atari 2600 set the stan-
dard in controllers, introduc-
ing the nine-pin connector
plug still used on most
videogames and low-end
home cortiputers. But the pro-
posed line-up of 2600 peri-
pherals, including several

planned 2600 keyboards, has
faded into oblivion.

THE 2600 TODAY

When the 2600 was first in-
troduced, many wondered
what game designers could
possibly find to do with so
much — 4K — memory.
Companies like Activision
built their reputations by
stretching the 2600
to its furthest possible limits.
As time passed and newer,
more sophisticated pro-

ATARI 2600 (VCS)

grammables like the Col-
ecoVision and Atari 5200

SOLAR FOX (CBS)

appeared, the 2600's mem-
ory limitations became appar-
ent.

CBS Videogames spent un-
disclosed amounts of time
and money researching a new
type of cartridge chip, which it
dubbed the RAM-cram.
These games contained resi-
dent memory housed within
the cartridge itself, which
added to memory already
built into the machine to
effectively double the 2600's
memory. After producing just

Electronic Games 63

two 8K games, Tunnel Run-
ner and Solar Fox, CBS aban-
doned its entire videogame
department to concentrate on
producing computer soft-
ware.

This year, Atari itself picked
up the ball, introducing its
own line of 8K 2600 games.
Among the releases are Star-
gate, Crystal Castles, Mil-
lipede and Track & Field, the
latter packaged with a special
controller developed by joy-
stick giant, Wico.

WHAT'S NEXT

FOR THE VCS

As consumers trade up
from videogames to full-
fledged computer systems,
they're passing their old
2600s along to siblings or chil-
dren. As a result, the 2600 is
now oriented towards youn-
ger players.

Not that many games
aren't fast-paced and
challenging enough for any
adult: Joust (Atari), River
Raid (Activision) and Star
Wars (Parker Brothers) are
just a sampling of the ex-
cellent arcade-action games
that are available. Even pro-
grams with an emphasis on
strategy, like Space Shuttle
(Activision), have found a
niche in the 2600 software
library. But the big news on
the VCS is kideogames, which

AcWisioM

RIVER RAID

VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGE

FOR USE WITH THE
ATARI VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM 1

RIVER RAID (ACTIVISION)

are now coming into their
prime with titles like Pigs in
Space, Cookie Monster
Munch and Snoopy and the
Red Baron.

Even six-month-old babies
can play Peek-A-Boo, Dr. Lee
Salk's educational entertain-
ment for use with the Atari
Kids' Controller. The game,
which stars a cute kitten who

PIGS IN SPACE (ATARI)

hides behind colorful blocks,
discourages competition and
is designed to avoid frustrat-
ing tiny players. If the child
doesn't find the cat in a rea-
sonable amount of time, the
feline sticks out a paw or an ear
to offer a helpful hint. With
difficulty levels ranging wide-
ly (at the lowest level all the
child has to do is touch the
controller — anywhere — to
earn the reward), this game
accommodates the full spec-
trum of toddler players.

As far as third-party soft-
ware support goes, last year's
tidal wave of cartridges has
ebbed to a comparative trick-
le. There are plenty of ex-
cellent games to be had,
many at bargain prices,
though the days of the 2600
blockbusters are quickly fad-
ing, having really peaked two

years ago with Activision's
Pitfall!. Though there are still
a number of VCS megahits,
like Pitfall II, most third -party
software developers — in-
cluding even Activision — are
throwing their major efforts
into designing computer
games — or at least, pro-
grams that are intended for
multiple systems.

Because of its rock-bottom
price, the 2600 is still a good
choice for the economy-
minded shopper. There's a
veritable treasure trove of
bargain cartridges, many of
which are left over from the
2600 games glut of last year.
But after the current stock of
2600 games are exhausted,
expect far fewer new titles to
take their places on the
shelves — and third-party
software support will fall off.

MASTER OF
MODULARITY

With its excellent graphics
and sound, the ColecoVision
would have been a success
even without its expansion
possibilities. Still, that little
port at the front of the unit
was what first caught the im-

aginations of visionary game
lovers. The idea of a
constantly-upgradeable unit
that would never be com-
pletely obsolete had a definite
appeal to thrift-conscious
shoppers. So far, the expan-

sion module interface has
been used to plug in Coleco's
2600 adapter; the steering
wheel for use with Turbo and
other driving games; and the
controversial computer add-
on, the Adam. The port was
also ready to be used to plug
in the now-defunct Super-
game module as well as a
home laserdisc module that
never quite materialized.

The hardware hasn't
changed since its introduction
more than two years ago,
with the Colecovision's major
drawback still its controllers.
Though several recent Coleco
games for the system have
been unexciting at best, the
library of good cartridges is
large, bolstered by third- party
games like Epyx's Gateway to
Apshai and Interphase's talk-
ing Squish 'Em. Activision,
Parker Brothers, AtariSoft and
Sierra are just a few of the
game developers actively
pursuing the ColecoVision
customer. Colecovisionaries
can now enjoy arcade-to-
home translations like Cen-
tipede (AtariSoft), Q*bert
(Parker Brothers), Star Wars
(Parker Brothers) and Front
Line (Coleco), a luxury un-
heard of in the days of system
exclusivity.

CONTROLLING

THE

COLECOVISION

As a result of the Col-
ecovision's enormous pop-
ularity, there's been no short-
age of controllers to replace
those hand-cramping stan-
dard joysticks. Wico, High

SQUISH 'EM (INTERPHASE)

Score, Suncom, Gim Electro-
nics and Championship Elec-
tronics all produce two-but-
ton joysticks for use with the
system. Championship Elec-
any standard nine-pin con-
troller. For games that don't
require two action buttons or
a keypad, any Atari-
compatible joystick will do.

Coleco itself makes a track-
ball that comes packaged

64 Electronic Games

SUPER ACTION CONTROLLERS (COLECO)

with a Slither cartridge, as
well as the four-button Super
Action Controllers, which es-
pecially appeal to sports-
minded gamers. Packaged
with Baseball, the Super Ac-
tion Controllers are also
necessary for playing such
games as Rocky Battles the
Champ and Front Line.

OUTLOOK FOR
COLECOVISION

With many first-time
electronic gamers being en-
ticed by low-priced comput-
ers, the eventual future of the
ColecoVision is linked to the
Adam, its add-on computer.
Despite initial production and

The ColecoVision game system.

image problems, the re-
vamped Adam has been
praised by its owners. Soft-
ware support is still sketchy,
consisting mostly of car-
tridges that are marked
"ColecoVision/Adam com-
patible.

At least for the time being,
the ColecoVision has plenty

of thunder left. With its exist-
ing library of outstanding
games — many of which are
finally being marked down af-
ter selling for two years at list
price — the ColecoVision off-
ers a vast selection of choice
games that appeal to home
arcaders of every taste and
gaming persuasion.

THE SUPERSYSTEM
BOWS OUT

Until the introduction of
Atari's 7800, this sleek, high-
tech unit was Atari's top-of-
the-line game player. Produc-
tion of the 5200 was officially
discontinued last spring,
though Atari announced
plans to provide software
support for the 5200, at least
for the foreseeable future. An
adapter that plugs into the
7800 and allows it to play
5200 cartridges is soon to be
available. In spite of these op-
timistic signs from Atari, 5200
owners have written in to EG
to express feelings of
abandonment.

The 5200's controllers
made at least some contribu-
tion to the game system's
eventual demise. While Atari's
original intention was to set
a new state of the art by pro-
viding an analog joystick
complete with remote start,
pause and reset functions, the
non-centering joysticks
proved frustratingly difficult

to use — especially in light of
the 5200's strong game base
of action-oriented arcade
translations like Pac-Man,
Centipede, Qix and Robot-
ron. Some joystick man-
ufacturers, like Wico, High
Score and Coin Controls, de-
signed good, self-centering
5200 replacement controllers,

but the effort was too little,
too late.

The 5200 had overtaken
the ColecoVision in sales
when Atari made the decision
to stop production in favor of
the 7800's new graphics tech-
nology. Since the 7800 won't
list for much more than the
5200, the choice for Atari was

ATARI 5200

one of simple economics. But
for game players, a new
choice is required: to enjoy
the 5200 and its complete
games library now, knowing
that it's effectively closed-
ended; or to wait for the next
step up, to either a computer
or the 7800.

5200: THE
COMPLETE HOME
ARCADE

Atari's own lineup of 5200
titles is downright boggling.
Defender, Pac-Man r Joust,
Space Dungeon, Star Raiders,
Pole Position, Pengo and
Robotron are just a few of the
solid wall of hits. Gremlins,
Atari's cartridge rendition of
Steven Speilberg's hit film, is
a brand-new action/strategy
contest with outstanding
graphics, sound and payabil-
ity, while Lucasfilm's Ball-
blazer and Rescue on Fracta-
ls set new standards in their

Electronic Games 65

PITFALL! (ACTIVISION)

respective ways. These and
other great games first
appeared on the 5200. Add
classic computer game titles
like Dan Gorlin's Choplifter!,
complete with full two-
button control, and it's clear
that the Atari software folks
have put in more than a little
overtime in the think tanks.

But the story from third-
party game developers isn't
quite as rosy. Many compan-
ies who design for the Col-
ecoVision never even glanced
at the 5200, despite its proven
capabilities. There are a few
bright spots among the
clouds, though: Parker Broth-
ers has its full line of games,
including the whimsical Frog-
ger II: Threedeep, Star Wars
and Montezuma's Revenge,
on cartridge for the 5200.
Activision has Beamrider, Pit-
fall and a host of other titles,
and Big Five has Miner
2049er. The 5200 has never

enjoyed the third-party sup-
port evidenced for other pro-
grammable videogames.

Even without these
independently -produced
games, as of now the Atari
5200 already sports what is
probably the strongest selec-
tion of good games.

Now that Atari pulled the
plug on its razzle-dazzle
game player, the 5200's fu-
ture is bleak. Gamers
shouldn't expect many third-
party cartridges coming
down the pike, but rather
should try to enjoy what's
out there now. While Atari
will keep releasing new titles
in 5200 format, the system
will eventually be replaced
by the 7800.

Still, the 5200 — like GCE's
now-extinct Vectrex — will
be remembered fondly, es-
pecially by those who own or
have owned it, as one of the
red-hot home arcades.

INTRODUCING
THE 7800

This fall, Atari stunned the
electronic gaming industry by
introducing its brand-new,
state of the art programmable
videogame machine, the
7800 — a step in the wrong
direction, according to the
market analysts, who forecast
the future of electro-gaming
as founded firmly in the com-
puter era. Can a dedicated
videogame, no matter how
spectacular, hope to compete
against low-end game-
playing computers like the
Atari 800XL and the Com-
modore 64? Atari, for one,

hopes so.

The 7800 looks like a minia-
ture replica of Atari's sleek,
modern-looking 5200. The
latter's bulky, uncontrollable
joystick/keyboards have
been replaced by attractive,
easy-to-use two-button joy-
stick, comparable with stan-
dard nine-pin controllers.
Theoretically, any two-button
joystick that works on a Col-
ecoVision should work on the
7800, though there is no
more need for a keypad, start,
reset or pause key. These ex-
tra frills have been eliminated

7800 POLE POSITION (ATARI)

BALLBLAZER (ATARI/LUCASFILM)

7800 PRO SYSTEM (ATARI)

PLAYERS GUIDE TO

PROGRAMMABLE

VIDEOGAME

SYSTEMS

66 Electronic Games

7800 JOUST (ATARI)

in an effort to keep the con-
trollers lightweight, desirable
and accurate. From EG's early
testing, all three seem to be
characteristics of the 7800 joy-
sticks, which are shaped like
slim cylinders to fit easily in
most palms.

The Atari 7800 is compat-
ible with Atari computer per-
ipherals, though Atari disks
will not work with the new
system. Due to its brand-new
"Marie" graphics chip, the
7800 speaks a different com-
puter language. Atari plans to
introduce a 7800 computer
keyboard if there's enough
demand for it, so that
peripheral-compatibility
could come in handy in a year
or so.

The 7800 comes packaged
with a high-quality Centipede
cartridge, which gives gamers
a hint of goodies to come. The
game's graphics are even bet-
ter than the 5200 version's
showing off the 7800's gra-
phics capability. The new
game machine lists at
$120, just about what the
5200 sold for last year. It ac-
cepts 2600 cartridges without
the added expense of a plug-
in module, making it the per-
fect trade-up for 2600 owners
with large game libraries. A
5200 adapter is due soon as
well.

THE FIRST
7800 GAMES

Atari premiered a host of
arcade hits for its new top-of-
the-line videogame, including
souped-up versions of Joust,
Centipede, Pole Position II,
Asteroids, Ms. Pac Man,
Robotron and Food Fight.
Desert Falcon, formerly titled
Nile Flier, is the first game
produced especially for the

7800. This high-resolution
action/strategy game fea-
tures Zaxxon's three-quarters
perspective and adds the abil-
ity to land, plus the chance to
find and use mystical powers.

Ballblazer and Rescue on
Fractalus are also due out for
the 7800, with Gremlins be-
ing translated as of this writ-
ing.

Third-party software sup-
port is uncertain at best, with
companies adopting a wait-
and-see attitude about Atari's
newestaddition. In the mean-
while, Atari is trying to take up
the slack by keeping those
megahits flowing to gamers.

CAN ATARI
DOIT?

The 7800 was launched at a
time when game manufactur-
ers, designers, and some in-
dustry analysts were predict-
ing a wholesale swing
towards computers and their
more sophisticated disk-
based software. There are a
lot of home arcaders out there
who don't feel ready to take
on the expense of a full com-
puter set-up. Whether they'll
succumb to computermania
or choose the best videogame
ever put on the market is a
question to be answered with
this holiday season.

One thing is certain — if a
programmable videogame
player is still going to sell,
Atari's 7800 is the top-of-the-
line system. With its built-in
2600 compatibility and
graphics resolution surpassing
even the high priced personal
computers, the 7800 is the
best videogame there is.

The Atari takeover by Com-
modore founder Jack Tramiel
has made the status of the
7800 uncertain as of now.

7800 DESERT FALCON (ATARI)

VIDEOGAMINC
OUTLOOK

VIDEOGAMES VS.
COMPUTERS

The rise of the home com-
puter — more than 15% of
American families now own
one — raises the question of
whether there's any sense
buying a videogame system.
One persuasive argument is
that a computer is a much
more versatile tool than a
videogame machine, thanks
largely to its keyboard, and
also plays excellent games.

The fact that computers are
more sophisticated and
powerful need not mean,
however, that videogames
have come to the end of their
usefulness. It's hard to name a
toy priced comparably to the
2600, for instance, that
affords the variety of play and
mental stimulation to be
found in this mini-player.
Even if the household already
has a microcomputer, there's
no reason why one or more
family members couldn't also
own personal home game
machines.

Another point to consider is
that many of the videogame
systems are equal to — or
even superior to — many low-
end computers in sound,
graphics and memory. You'd
have to spend a bundle to get
a computer capable of rivaling
the 7800's game graphics.
The ColecoVision's library of
games includes numerous ti-
tles which offer just as much
excitement as anything on
cartridge for computer.

Then, too, the surviving
videogame systems are all
supported with extensive li-
braries of cartridge software.
If you buy a videogame unit,
you'll never have to worry
about finding enough good
games. There are dozens for
every system. Another way to
look at this aspect is that once
you purchase a system and
some software, you've got a
self-sufficient entertainment
device that can provide many
hours of pleasure even if the
manufacturer decides to slow
or stop new product in-
troductions a year or so from
now.

Some people are simply not
ready, for one of a host of
reasons, to get into home
computing. For these folks,
the videogame system can be
a pleasant and easy way to
make first contact with the
world of interactive electronic
entertainment.

And, of course, highly
transportable videogame sys-
tems are excellent take-
alongs on trips and vacations.
They connect to any TV set in
a jiffy with no esoteric hard-
ware (beyond the RF box).

Are these reasons compel-
ling enough to get you to buy
a videogame system? That, of
course, is an individual choice.
What can be said with some
certainty, is that videogame
systems have many attractive
points and are not going to
disappear overnight as a re-
sult of the popularity of com-
puters. Q

Electronic Games 67

By TRACIE FORMAN

Software King Of The Ozark s

Vou're not going to belly laugh or
really cry playing a computer
game," muses Dan Bunten, head de-
signer of Ozark Softscape, the game
design house behind M.U.L.E. and
Seven Cities of Gold. "The best we
can hope for is empathy with your
character.

The lanky, 35-year-old Arkansas
resident is in New York, wrapping up a
promotion tour for Seven Cities. Like
Ozark Softscape's earlier effort
M.U.L.E., Seven Cities places the
character in a more active role
than many strategy games.

The conquistador-age ex-
ploration adventure is the
first in a projected "Ages of
Man" series. "That kind of
tickles me," laughs Dan, re-
ferring to the series' lofty
title, "it's so pretentious!"

Dan Bunten is anything
but pretentious. A former
conscientious objector and
'60 f s radical, he's fiercely
proud of the dents and broken
windshield on his old Volks-
wagon, but "I felt like I sold out
when I bought a 25-inch color TV."

Dan was born in St, Louis, the
eldest of six children, Since

the family moved around a lot, the
children learned to rely on each other
for companionship. "We had ready-
made teams," he recalls. Dan and
brother Bill, now an Ozark team mem-
ber as well, would modify board
games to keep themselves enter-
tained.
It was Dan's interest in multi-player

contests that led him to design Wheel-
er Dealers (Speakeasy Software) in
1 979, as a 1 6K Apple cassette. He and
his brothers rigged special buttons to
allow four people to play the full-text
stock market simulation at once. They
manufactured 500 copies to sell
through Speakeasy, only 100 of which
sold. "It was really pretty goofy," grins
Dan.

That same year, Bunten hooked up
with Strategic Simulations, which mar-
keted his next three designs, Compu-
ter Quarterback, Cytron Masters and
Cartels & Cutthroats. He credits Cy-
tron Masters as the forerunner
of M.U.L.E. in many ways.

"With M.U.LE. we tried to build a
framework through which people
could socialize. Our family doesn't talk
much, or say how we like to spend
time together. M.U.LE. builds that
flexible environment.

"We consider ourselves conceptual
designers," he adds. We don't come
up with a theme and then write a
game. We come up with elements that
will make a good play encounter.
"For us, Seven Cities was a real de-
parture. It gives players the
moral dilemma of the
Spanish conquista-
dors, with the

68 Electronic Games a

delicate balance between negotia-
tion and might. The whole design
is built around entertaining you,
the individual."

Soon after his return to Arkansas,
Dan joined the rest of Ozark Softscape
(brother Bill Bunten, Alan Watson and
Jim Rushing) for a week-long retreat
to brainstorm their next major project.
"The most fun is sitting around com-
ing up with the ideas, saying 'Well,
now, what's it gonna be?'

"We're really just scratching the
surface of what a computer can do,"
he notes. "We don't even know how
to be dramatic yet. The most in-
experienced writers know how to de-
velop characters, underline plots, etc.,
but we're at the first-grade level. Pro-
grams are great in comparison to what
they used to be, but they don't com-
pare to real art."

Each member of Ozark Softscape is
excited at the new project for a differ-
ent reason. While Dan tries to instill a
meaningful message in each program,
Jim Rushing likes the programming
challenge. Bill Bunten, the only non-
programmer on the team, enjoys
working out the secrets and subtleties
behind the obvious game elements.
Allan Watson, a would-be cartoonist,
likes to animate the sequences.

The design team is a varied and very
educated crew, indeed — Dan has a BS
in industrial engineering and a masters
degree in science operations research.
Bill, the only part-timer (he works for
the Parks Department), has an MBA, as
well as several certificates in leisure
planning. Alan, an ex-junior high
school teacher, has a B.S. in math, and
Jim, whose first job is with Ozark, has
an MBA.

Despite Ivy League backgrounds,
the gang looks downright grungy in
their official Electronic Arts photo.
"We don't wear suits," notes Dan,
though before the picture was taken
they were told not to shave, to wear
dirty clothes, and to mess up their hair
"to be remembered as being unique."
(The woman Bill Bunten is leering at in
the shot is actually Theresa Bunten,
their sister. Roy Glover, the musician/
computer repairman who penned the
M.U.L.E. anthem, was not in the pic-
ture.)

Despite Ozark Softscape's seeming-
ly meteoric rise, Dan refutes the

SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD (ELECTRONIC ARTS)

stereotype of the young,
nouveau riche game designer. "People
have this perception that we're all real-
ly rich," he says. "But my family of
four lives on a pretty modest income. If
I hadn't picked up a little job here and
there, I couldn't have gone into (game
designing) full time."

Instead of being in it for the money,
Dan finds he likes his work. "In one
sense, (a game designer) is a tech-
nologist who has to work out every
detail of every line of code. The other
side of my personality is creative, artis-
tic. This is a chance to put both aspects
into one job."

Dan asked Electronic Games Maga-
zine to spread the word to would-be
game designers that Ozark Softscape
is looking for apprentices willing to re-
locate to the Arkansas area. Would he
advise new programmers to go into
game design?

"In comparison to what else?" he
replies. "I wouldn't tell them to throw
away other opportunities that come
by. Young designers are too tightly
focused and don't leave themselves
options to do other things."

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CARTELS & CUTTHROATS (SSI)

As for the glamor of game designing
professionally, Dan says, "The people I
admire are the people who went to jail
instead of Vietnam, or who go to India
to do some good, or who are really
committed to the environment. Those

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M.U.LE. (ELECTRONIC ARTS)

are the people who are really admir-
able. What I'm doing seems less im-
portant. If we can develop enough real
tools in the medium, like maybe a
world energy model, maybe I can do
something to change some of that. I
want to make a significant impact in a
person's life. Then I'll feel like an
artist." G

The Ozark Software group, en famitie.

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Don't Go Near The Waters

On Parade

GREMLINS

Atari/Atari 5200

The only similarity between this
edition of Gremlins and the 2600 car-
tridge is its movie-based title. Whereas
the 2600 game uses the hit summer
flick's plot as mere background for an
old-hat play-mechanic, the 5200
game has all the thrills, chills, and
offbeat sense of humor that kept the
lines so long at the box office.

Anyone who survived the summer

ing Mogwais, each of which must be
deposited into a stationary on-screen
cage to keep it from finding a midnight
snack. With each progressive level, the
room starts out littered with more
fully-formed Gremlins — which are
fatal to the touch — along with more
water puddles and more food.

One some screens, the Gremlins
make a dash for the refrigerator, toss-
ing out bits of food to tempt always-
hungry Mogwais. Meanwhile, other

5200 GREMLINS (ATARI)

"Gremlins" invasion knows that there
are two things one must never do to
cute, gentle little Mogwais: get them
wet, which causes them to multiply;
and feed them after midnight, after
which they hatch into dangerously
malevolent Gremlins. This game starts
the hero out in a houseful of wander-

Gremlins try to reach the Mogwai ca^e
to free all the trapped beasties for new
temptations.

The game's sense of humor is es-
pecially obvious at higher levels. For
example, Gremlins and Mogwais alike
love television, and are likely to turn it
on and sit transfixed in front of it if

rik-

70 Electronic Games

they get the chance. And, like constant
dieters, Mogwais create their own
culinary temptations, turning on the
popcorn machines even after the play-
er has turned them off.

The creatures seem to have definite
personalities, detailed down to the
frightened shaking of the Mogwais be-
ing teased by their Gremlin cousins
Mogwais tend to run straight to the
on-screen hero, as if anxious to retreat
to the cage's relative safety.

Gremlins is a rare find for action
lovers, requiring split-second decision-
making and skillful swordplay to sur-
vive. Add to that an outstanding
theme song and graphics, plus more
than twenty-five different screens,

and the end result is one of the best
games ever made for the 5200. This car-
tridge can keep gamers happily occu-
pied — even long after midnight.

(Trade Forman)

GREMLINS

Atari/Atari 2600

After such spectacular disasters as
its game versions of E.T. and Raiders
of the Lost Ark, one might think Atari
would shy away from licensing games
from the silver screen. Gremlins, in the
2600 version, only reinforces the fact
that a great movie doesn't necessaily
make a great game."

In Gremlins, the idea is simple
enough. The first screen involves

catching falling Mogwais (the sweet
little critters that only turn evil when
they're fed after midnight) before they
reach the floor, where tasty midnight
snacks lie waiting. After that phase
ends, the player must try to shoot the
Mogwais-turned-Gremlins as they
advance down the screen. If a Gremlin
manages to land at ground level, it has
a human snack — and one life is lost.

The real problem with this game is
that it's so blatantly derivative it's
downright embarrassing. The play-
mechanic was first seen about two
years ago in Activision's Kaboom!,
then again six months later in U.S.
Games' humorous Eggomania. Atari
2600 owners who want a catch-the
falling-object play-mechanic probably
already have one.

On the up side, Gremlins is one of
Atari's new superchip games, which
effectively double the 2600's game-
playing memory to a full 8K, so the
graphics are beautiful. But pretty pic-
tures aren't enough in a game that has
little else that's new.

(Trade Forman)

QUICK STEP

Imagic/ 'Atari 2600

Add Imagic's Quick Step to the
growing number of color-changing
contests. In this version of the Q*bert
mania, gamers, in the guise of a kan-
garoo (or a squirrel in the two-player
version), jump from one trampoline to
another while they are scrolling down
off the screen. Whenever a player
lands on one of the trampolines, it
changes to his color. However, the op-
posing player can change it back. This
goes on as long as the trampolines are
on-screen.

Not all of the trampolines are alike,
however. Some of them (the white
trampolines) are called magic mats.
Just before their appearance on the
screen, music is heard. If the gamer
can claim one of these mats, it changes
to his color and bestows upon him the
power to freeze his opponent for
awhile. All the player has to do is land
on the same trampoline as his op-
ponent. (It's a good idea to freeze the
player near the bottom of the screen
so that he loses a life when the tram-
poline slides off-screen.)

n addition to the magic mats, gam-
ers are armed with tricky traps. These
traps, released by pressing the joystick
button, cause the trampoline the play-
er last stood on to disappear. This, in
effect, prevents the opponent from

Electronic Games 71

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QUICK STEP (IMAGJC)

hopping onto that space. Judicious use
of tricky traps can isolate the opponent
from the rest of the screen. Although
players begin with six traps, they can
accumulate more by landing on gold
mats.

When the first wave of trampolines
is nearing an end, the gamer will hear
five beeps. This signals the beginning
of the ladder sequence and the
approach of another level. The ladder
sequence differs from the usual wave
of trampolines in that only one tram-
poline (instead of the normal four)
appears at a time. And yes, tricky traps
are especially effective on the ladders.

All in all, Quick Step is a fast-paced
strategy game that works well on the
2600.

(Vincent Puglia)

PITSTOP

Epyx/Coleco Vision

Pitstop is the driving videogame for
purists.

Pitstop isn't the next Turbo. It isn't
trying to be. This program is for folks
who want to vicariously feel the roar of
heavy metal (Pitstop has the best driv-
ing sounds in the genre), and taste the
grit of imaginary dust. This is for you
electronic-age Cale Yarboroughs
who want to test grit and skill behind
a steering wheel and accelerator (un-
less, poor thing, you don't have a Col-
eco steering module, in which case a
joystick and action button will do).

This cart's for gamers who want to
put the pedal to the metal!

Wow, are there options: number of
drivers (1-4, but no head-to-head);
level of difficulty (rookie, semi-pro and
pro); single, mini- or grand circuit; and
the course you'd prefer to drive
(Monaco, Le Mans, Kyalami, Albi,
Jarama, and St. Jovite are available).

People who enjoy Pitstop will
appreciate these true-to-life touches,
especially with each course rendered

at the lower left of the playfield with a
cursor indicating the player's current
status.

The optical effects won't blow your
mind, but this is racing, y'all, not
Ascot! Keep your grandstands and
flag-waving, this game creates the feel
of moving through a pack with a quali-
ty that just feels so right.

In terms of realism, Pitstop goes
even further. Unlike other racing
games, in which you either blow up
with each contact — with another car
or the side of the road — or bump
endlessly, this game creates limita-
tions. No, there's no frustrating explo-
sion and scratch start with every mis-
take, but bump too many times and
the car or tires might get damaged.
Then there's fuel to consider — speed
eats diesel in great gulps, not to men-
tion wearing down tire treads. When
times of trouble loom ahead, wait for
one of the spots where the road
widens and take an off-ramp into the
pitstop, where, via joystick manipula-
tion, a four man crew gasses her up,
fixes the engine, replaces a tire, and
signals the reentry into the race. These
stops cost time, but add a marvelous
depth to the contest.

At the end of each race, the giant
board flashes the results. First comes
the finish of the previous race: posi-
tion, laps, time and purse. The circuit
standings follow.

Pitstop is the real thing. For owners

(

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run. i i

PITSTOP (EPYX)

72 Electronic Games

•PROGRAMMABLE PARADE

of the steering module, this will prove
an exhilarating experience. Remember
to read the directions! There's so much
here, it would be a shame to miss any
of it.

(Will Richardson)

NOVA BLAST

Imagic/ColecoVision

The best description of Nova Blast
would be: Defender meets Missile
Command by way of Demon Attack.

Players defend a quartet of domed
cities from wave after wave of assault
by different types of alien attackers.
Hence, players must deal with orion
fighters, Gravitines, Astro Sailors,
Quemens, Diving Drones, Sonads,
etc., and, as in Demon Attack, half the
fun is in seeing all these different crea-
tures each rack — sort of like a pro-
longed Cantina sequence.

The player controls a horizontally-
scrolling ship that fires lasers and drops
bombs in a manner some cynics may
feel derives overly much from De-
fender. The ship is there to defend four
cities, whose energy shields can
absorb a certain number of hits before
disappearing. At the end of each
assault round, the player picks up
bonus points determined by the num-
ber of cities left standing.

Imagic added an intriguing wrinkle
or two to Nova Blast There are ex-
ceedingly neat ground-based assault
vehicles the player's craft must kayo

NOVA BLAST (IMAGIC)

via bombing. These tread-bearing,
well-armed land-crawlers are a mag-
nificent graphic touch and add an ele-
ment of genuine harrassment to the
proceedings.

Best of all, there are periodically
appearing power stations — they
resemble the electric arcs that buzzed
so happily in all those mad doctor flicks
— which the defending ship can tap
into and absorb power from. Once the
power is taken into the ship's storage

ROBOTRON 2084 (ATARI)

cells, it can be discharged into a
weakened city and recharge its defen-
sive dome.

Nova Blast isn't going to set the
world on fire, but it's a nice addition to
the Coleco library.

(Bill Kunkel)

ROBOTRON: 2084

Atari/Atari 5200

This cartridge has the colorful
graphics and shoot-from-the-hip
play-action that first attracted fans at
the arcades. But the non-centering
5200 joysticks would have rendered
Robotron unplayable if Atari hadn't
had the foresight to include an anchor-
ing base for its controllers in the pack-
age. Even with the base, Robotron's
new non-centered control scheme
takes a lot of getting used to, es-
pecially by those used to the arcade
game — especially between rounds,
when the sticks have to be set back to
center to avoid a fatal first step.

Players with the patience to work
through early difficulties — or those
with two self-centering 5200 controll-
ers — will find all the game's elements
intact, from the hi-res human family in
distress to the progressively more
lethal droids. Once you get past the
"new" control scheme, Robotron
turns out to be all a fast-action fan
could want in a game.

(Trade Forman)

Electronic Games 73

By TRACIE FORMAN

Find the Glitches, Easter Eggs and Bugs
in Your Favorite Programs

0% o electronic gamer ever has a
IH good word for program bugs,
those pesky coding mistakes that crash
the game just as you're about to zap
the wizard, but glitches and easter
eggs are a different story. When Rob
Fulop fixed up the home edition of
Missile Command to display his ini-
tials under special circumstances, he
couldn't have known he was starting a
major craze within the hobby.

EG's inventive and sharp-eyed read-
ers are on the cutting edge of quirk -
questers. The "Glitch of the Month"
section has brought an avalanche of
incredible easter eggs and glitches of
every description.

So here's our salute to the inventive
programmers who hide the goodies
and the equally ingenious players who
find them.

PITFALL —
FALL NO MORE

To go into a pit without losing 100
points, simply approach a ladder lead-
ing underground. If you're moving left
to right, push the joystick southeast
(southwest if you're moving left) as
soon as Harry begins to fall in. He'll
grab the ladder and safely descend.
(Atari 2600 version.)

Frank Townsend
San Jose, CA

KEEP ON TREKKIN'

On my Commodore 64 version of
StarTrek r I found a way to produce an
unlimited score. By usingthefollowing
keys: X: Rotate Right; Z: Rotate Left;
Slash (/); Fire; and M: Warp, you can
maneuver without being destroyed.

You can achieve this only by using up
all your warp energy. Then press the
slash and M keys simultaneously while
maneuvering with the X and Z keys.
This allows you to maneuver without
docking or getting destroyed. The only
problem is that after a long time it gets
boring!

Joe Drabek
Cheektowaga, NY

THE (REALLY) HIGH JUMP

During the pole vault sequence in
Decathlon for the 2600, if you press
the button more than once after let-
ting the pole go, your man will keep
rising and clear the pole entirely. After
a few moments in mid-air, my man
floated across the screen to the left-
Steve Kelly
Kansas City, MO

Q*BERT QUIRKS

In Q*bert for the Atari 2600, wait
on the top cube of the pyramid and let
Coily approach. When he's just about
to leap onto the top cube, hop Q*bert
off the right side. He'll fall off, but
Coily will be eliminated (heh-heh).
You'll get the usual 500 points for
eliminating Coily, and a new Q*bert
will appear at the top of the pyramid
without costing the player a life. This
can be repeated indefinitely.

Tom E. Swingle
Waterford, OH

Wait till Coily jumps on the im-
mediate diagonal neighbor cube.
When he's about to jump on Q*bert,
jump onto him. You won't die. You
will only trade places.

Eduardo Molon
Miami, FL

GHOSTLY DOTS

Set the 5200 Pac-Man cartridge on
the cherry screen, take off from the
right, and head up into the right-hand
tunnel. As you go off-screen, you'll
hear a chomp. Freeze the action and
inspect the dots to the left of the start-
ing point, and you'll find a missing dot
where no Pac-Man has gone before.

Bill Ajello
Newark, NJ

WIZARDRY MAGIC

I found a glitch on my Wizardry
program for the Apple computer. You
can make any character know all the
spells, and you can make the charact-
er's level higher than level 200. His or
her hit points will also be above 700.

74 Electronic Games

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Note experience points.

To do this r go to the Training
Grounds and create a bishop (1 2 piety
and 12 I.Q.). After creating the char-
acter, take it into the maze. When
you're at your camp, inspect the
bishop. Then press the letter I for iden-
tify an item. The computer will then
ask what number item you wish identi-
fied. Push 9. If it says "failure," try
again. When it says "success," it will
give you one hundred million experi-
ence points. Then go back into the
castle and go to the Adventurer's Inn.
Keep staying in the stables until you
learn all the spells and gain as many hit
points as desired. Your strength, I.Q.,
piety, vitality, agility and luck should
all equal 18. Then you can go back to
the maze and cast a new spell to make
your hit points equal to your status. (If
your character is of the right align-
ment, use the change-class option in
the Training Grounds to become a
Ninja, Samurai or Lord. After the new
characters make it to their experience
level 2, they can use every spell for
both mages and priests.)

David Schwantes
Huntington Beach, CA

TUT-TUT TUTANKH AM

In Tutankham for the VlC-20, you
can shoot through walls that are one
layer thick. You have to be moving
toward the wall and shooting for the
bullets to go through.

David Bye
Portland, IN

JUNIOR GETS A LIFT

In Donkey Kong Junior for the Co-

lecovision, go to the top platform
next to the hole where the birds come
through. Then walk into the hole. Ju-
nior will grab an invisible vine by him-
self and can move up right through the
top of the platform.

Doug Gritman,
Stratford, CT

On the spring board screen, position
Junior on the right-hand side of the
moving chain, at the bottom. Wait un-
til the top moving platform passes.
When it's almost past, pull the stick
down and left. Junior will fall onto the
spot where the plaform used to be,
and sits there until the platform is
moved back under him, or the control
is moved.

Jim Elliott
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

SLAPPING SMURFS

In Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's
Castle for the Colecovision, get as
close as you can to Smurfette without
touching her, then wait for Smurfs
energy to run out. Smurfette moves
her lower arm and seems to punch him
out!

Bill Westerhoff
New Caanan, CT

There's a way to keep Smurfette's
dress off until your energy runs out.
You need the Roller Controller, or two
joysticks plugged into one port
through a Y-adapter. Stand on the

skull and push one joystick down and
the other up. Smurf gets lower and
lower. When he disappears, the lady
does her striptease act. Smurf will
reappear at the top of the screen.

Ramey Gonzales
Merced, CA

OFF THE BEATEN PATH

In Bump 'NT Jump for the Intellivi-
sion, you can jump off one side of the
TV screen and land before you can be
seen on the other side. If done right,
the player's car lands on an invisible
highway between the sides of the TV
screen. You must jump off and on to
the "real" road before reaching a gas
pump. To leave the invisible road, just
press the jump button and one side of
the disk. Do not press the disk while on
the invisible highway or you crash. I
achieved over a million points using
this glitch.

David Foulke
Maroa, IL

WHAT'S A GLITCH?

To clear up misunderstandings
among our readers, here's a definition
of the three types of quirks found in
programs:

A glitch is an unexpected sub-
routine thattums up in a program, like
Smurfette's surprise striptease.

An easier egg is a hidden message in
a program, such as a designer's initials.

A bug is a defect in programming
that causes the game to malfunction.

Lead-in to stripping Smurfette.

Topless Smurfette.

Electronic Games 75

The Game

World

Meets the

Real World

If subhunt games are your passions,
the ultimate device belongs to the
U.S. Navy. Calling it a "game" is really
a misnomer, but a game of hide and
seek it turns out to be. For our first-
hand look at how the Navy plays a
subhunt game for real, we went along
on a West Coast training flight from
Moffett Field near Palo Alto, Calif.
with squadron VP-31.

Sound like an interesting experi-
ence? You bet. Say hello to the U.S.
Navy's P3 Orion, a four-engine air-
liner-size turbo-prop aircraft that, with
its dozen or so crewmen, forms part of
the best defense against the threat of
enemy submarines by constantly pat-
rolling our coasts and the sealanes and
waterways of the world.

Navy P3 Orion crews are part of a
videogamer's dream. Using radar and
sonar scopes, including their own ver-
sion of joysticks, the sensor operators
search for enemy submarines. The
quarry, of course, is not just hanging
around below the surface trying not to
be noticed. It's actively working at not
being caught. There are underwater
valleys and rock formations under
which to hide, and decoys that can be
sent out to confuse the Orion oper-
ators. And to compound the problem,
the P3 crew has to make sure that they
have, indeed, found a foreign sub and
not accidently given away the secret
hiding place of one of our own. It
makes for an interesting situation.

The playing field can be any of the
oceans and navigable seas in the
world. Your mission is to detect, keep
track of, and, if necesssary, destroy
enemy submarines before they have a
chance to launch their missiles against
the major population areas and milit-
ary installations of the United States
and other countries you are assigned
to protect. In addition, it is your job to
help keep the sealanes open and clear
of marauding attack submarines and if
assigned to convoy duty, to insure the
ocean path ahead is free of a lurking
underwater enemy.

Let's look at a possible scenario.

Somewhere off the coast of the Un-
ited States are foreign submarines.

Almost all are submerged and in
hiding.

On your side is sonar (for underwa-
ter detection) and radar — just in case
you might find a submarine on the
surface or with one of its motherships,
getting supplies. Your mission can also
include checking out various surface
vessels to make sure they are, indeed,
friendly to the United States.

For weapons, your P3 is equipped
with depth-charges and Harpoon
anti-ship/submarines missiles. Depth-
charges are updated versions of what
you might see in an old war movie on
the late show, but the Harpoon missile
is a creature of another sort.

Resembling in name only the instru-
ment Capt. Ahab had to launch
against Moby Dick, the Harpoons car-
ried by a P3 are sophisticated missiles
that, once locked on to their target by
the Orion crew, are fast, deadly, and
extremely accurate.

In addition, you have mines that can
be dropped in the path of a ship. You
can fly fast or slow, and, if needed,
call in jet aircraft and friendly Navy
vessels to help you in the destruction
of your targets.

Now, just in case this sounds easy so
far, let's throw in a couple of tricks the
enemy has up his sleeves.

He has the entire ocean for a hiding

76 Electronic Games

By DAVID LUSTIG

place, possibly sitting in one of those
aforementioned underwater valleys or
perhaps cuddling under a surface ship.
He has equipment to tell him you're
searching for him, decoys to fool you,
and worse, the prospect of anti-
aircraft missiles of his own to turn the
hunter into the hunted. In addition, he
may have nearby surface ships keep-
ing him in contact with the outside
world. He can outwait you until your
airplane leaves the area and then fire
his missiles and torpedos. He can be
just as tricky and sophisticated as you.
Now let's throw in still another
problem; the weather. Imagine doing
all of this not on a clear day with the

The crew of the P3 Orion at

work: Computer games may simulate,

but this is the real thing.

sun shining and calm air currents gent-
ly skimming under your airplane, but
in a rain squall, or at night, with chop-
py seas and limited visibility. And all
the muck you're flying through makes
even an aircraft the size of a P3 buck
and bounce like a toy.

It can be an exacting, sometimes
exciting, mission. And the actions of
the crew, once given the go-ahead to
engage the enemy, creates the miss-
ion's success or failure. No second
chances here, no confident know-
ledge that blowing this try can be rect-
ified by pulling another quarter or
token from your pocket and starting
over again.

When on patrol in a specific area,
the crew of the Orion uses the air-
plane's radar to detect any ocean-
going vessels. Checking surface ships
is another part of the Orion's job — as
well as any submarines caught off-
guard on the surface.

If the presence of a submarine is
suspected in the area, the Orion gently
drops a sonabuoy into the ocean.
From the minute it hits, sonar impulses
begin. The electronic returns, auto-
matically signaled back to the aircraft
are carefully monitored. Ever see an
old World War II movie with the sonar
operator aboard a Navy destroyer
listening for pings from the hull of the
submerged sub? Basically, the same
thing.

Except a destroyer, limited by its
speed, can cover only about 700
square miles of ocean in an hour. But a
P3 Orion, skimming a couple of hund-
red feet over the ocean, can take a
look at over 95,000 square miles of
ocean in that same hour, searching
and laying a "pattern" of sonabuoys
that create an electronic net to snare
the "pings" of an underwater in-
truder.

Once the intruder is located, addi-
tional sonabuoys are dropped to pin-
point the exact position and then the
hunt becomes the kill.

Usually, the Orion's job is to locate
and keep track of the submarine while
jets from a nearby aircraft carrier or
land-base are guided into the area and
pursue the attack.

Once one of the sonar operators
locks the submarine's position into the
computer and transmits it to the miss-
ile, it's only a few moments after
firing that another submarine can be
scratched from the active inventory.

Sound interesting? The crew I flew
with was not only enthusiastic, but de-
dicated. The mission put them on the
"frontline" of defense and provided a
challenge.

And what do these joystick and so-
nar operators do on their time off?
"Relax with my family," says one,
"And then set up the home
videogame and play Zaxxon." G

Electronic Games 77

By BILL KUNKEL

Bruce Lee: Enter the Joystick!

BRUCE LEE

Datamost/ Apple, Atari, C-64/32K Disk

With software development houses
busy fighting for licenses for the latest
Muppet, Superman or Indiana Jones
projects, Datasoft seemed to be mov-
ing in its own, unique direction when
they announced a game starring. . .
Bruce Lee??

"Let's face it," admits designer Ron
Fortier, "The whole Bruce Lee phe-
nomenon was pretty much dead at the
time — no morbid pun intended," he
quickly adds. "It took a lot of vision on
the part of these guys (Datasoft) to
pick up this property."

What Datasoft and the creators
proved with the resulting game entry
is that any viable license can be a suc-
cess. The alchemy is simple: create a
good, playable product that reflects
the ambiance of the property being
adapted.

A multi-level, puzzle-solving action
game with plenty of martial arts added
to the brew; this program is a textbook
example of how to adapt a film char-
acter to the world of electronic

Left to right: Ninja, Bruce and Yamo.

78 Electronic Games

Bruce Lee on the receiving end.

entertainment without losing any-
thing in the translation. Lee, under the
gamer's control, must move through a
series of interconnected, multi-level
chambers beneath a temple en-
sconced deep in the Himalayas.

Lee must jump up and collect a
series of hanging lamp-like objects,
while avoiding the non-stop aggres-
sion being thrown at him by the tag
team of a sword-hefting Ninja and the
Green Yamo, a massive Sumo wrestler
with a kick that would intimidate a
mule and a punch that can knock out
an RV.

The contest begins with Bruce mov-
ing across a horizontal scenario three
playfields wide. Once all the treasures
are plucked, the martial arts legend
must return to the center screen and
drop through a now-opened trapdoor
into a lower level, with even more
dangerous obstacles. Of course, the
Ninja and Yamo make reprise appear-
ances.

Bruce Lee is the sort of game that
appeals to almost all types of game
players. For straight out, kick-the-
door-down action, its 20 play screens
offer enough flying kicks, swinging

swords, mazes, obstacles, puzzles and
treasures to satisfy fans of everything
from Lode Runner to the Apshai
series. On the other fist, this game
reflects a lot of thought in its design.
This was no discard program sitting on
the shelf waiting to be form-fitted
around whatever license happened to
fall into Datasoft's lap. The creators
put eight months into this game —
and it shows.

The game reflects its Oriental gene-
sis in many ways. It's almost Zen gam-
ing: puzzles within puzzles, and not all
need to be solved in order to move
further into the depths. Others have
more than one resolution.

Several of the chambers are so
formidable that the Ninja and Green
Yamo don't even try to follow. This
doesn't mean things are any easier for
our hero, though. In these places the
master of martial arts must leap and
creep and figure out exactly how to
get through these scenarios — most of
which look like the co-creations of
Confucius and Rube Goldberg. Bold
and alone, Bruce will eventually work
it out — if the gamer's up to it, that is!

Bruce Lee in the dungeon's depths.

THE MIEN BEHIND THE
COMPUTERIZED NINJA:
FORTIER AND DAY

Prior to the release of Bruce Lee,
designer Ron Fortier and graphics ex-
pert Kelly Day were known primarily
for their work on the popular transla-
tion of Sega's Zaxxon for the Atari
computers. The success of Bruce Lee,
however, insures that there will be
further collaborations. They happily
admit that they have very little choice.

The program's extraordinary graphics
were no mere stroke of luck. Even the
audio is perfect — especially the
theme music and the exaggerated mar-
tial arts-flick body contact, with kicks
and blows sounding like gunshots.

"We watched all the Bruce Lee
movies/' explained Fortier, "as well
as other martial arts films on videotape.
We had this idea of utilizing really
fantastic graphics to create a sort of
computer-movie with the player as a
character. We wanted the animation
in particular to be outstanding."

As with all great games, many
of the best elements evolved by acci-
dent.

"That was the real fun part," con-
fesses Kelly. "Some of the best things in
this game just. . .happened! We had
gotten all of Bruce Lee's moves down
and Ron was just sort of playing
around, using a joystick to control the
Green Yamo. . ."

Eureka!

Thus was born the unique idea of a
two-player game wherein both gam-
ers take turns at playing the hero,
while manipulating the adversary in
between rounds. In fact, Kelly warns,
"You can do a lot of things with the
Yamo on a joystick that the computer
can't."

There is certainly very little in gam-
ing that can equal the feeling of con-
trolling the Yamo as he stands at the
edge of a ladder which Bruce has to
climb. The anticipation of throwing
the punch which will knock the

HLL'

1 1 B*

■Till

Graphics expert Kelly Day (above)
and designer Ron Fortier, whose
happy collaboration resulted in

Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee in mid-quest.

redoubtable martial arts wizard into
next week is even more pleasurable
than the act itself!

The program's bold new look can-
not to overemphasized. Kelly read
extensively of Oriental architecture,
and, "I attempted to integrate the vi-
sual effects I saw in the films."

Mitch Junkins, oneof the program's
producer/godfathers, added that in
order to create the proper spiritual de-
portment for creating such a game,
the team also "ate a lot of sushi."

Now that's dedication!

Bruce Lee is hot, and when a game is
hot, the inevitable question of a sequel
arises. The folks at Datasoft are mum,
but remember: the Dragon always
seems to return, no?

LIFE AND DEATH IN
THE HIDDEN TEMPLE

Surviving in the garden of the Hima-
layan temple, much less in the maze-
like chambers below, will require more
than the typical run of hand-eye

coordination skills. One must learn
timing to deal with the many laser
charges that flow periodically between
levels and most importantly, acquire
almost Zen-like patience.

One of the many hazards of the un-
derground is the moving latticed walls.
Often, the player is attempting to
move a character up a ladder now in
the process of scrolling down. Keep at
it. Let fly with an "Ohm!" or two and
keep the joystick pointed up. Per-
serverance will triumph!

Good puzzle solving skills are es-
sential. Freeze the scenarios and ex-
amine them. Where are the treasures?
How can they be reached? Is there an
obvious way out once the item is
taken?

Only play time will teach the bulk of
this knowledge. Bear in mind, howev-
er, that those spots where treasure
hangs can always be escaped from.
Even when it seems impossible, taking
the trinket often opens a hidden gate-
way.

As Bruce Lee, remember that a good
defense is the best offense. In other
words: duck frequently. Let the Nin-
ja's sword sing its executioner's song
inches above your head while clumsy
Green Yamo misses you entirely with
his crude jump-kick. Then make fast
tracks out of there.

As Yamo, put your icon in a position
where you know Bruce must eventually
appear (the ledge of a precipice is
good) and wait for him. When he
shows, punch him in the head and
watch him tumble.

Green Yamo's human alter ego
must always remember: "Bruce Lee
can take only so many shots — Green
Yamo always come back!" (Found in a
computer fortune cookie.)

There's another way to operate this
game, by the way, for noncompetitive
types interested primarily in seeing all
20 levels: when running Yamo, use
him on the Ninja, freeing Lee to ex-
plore uninhibited. Q

Where Ninjas fear to tread.

Electronic Games 79

The Atari 800XL: A Lot Of Computer For The Price

hen Atari introduced its first
"XL" computer, the 1200, the
new machine met with anything but
unanimous acclaim. Notwithstanding
its lukewarm reception, the computer
sported a few promising touches, in-
cluding a systems checkout on cold
boot, a "HELP" key, an easily access-
ible ROM cartridge slot and a high-
tech, low profile look. Had its price
been a tad lower than the original
$1000.00 asked, and had it been cap-
able of running then-current Atari
software, it might have had a chance.
So much for history. The 1200XL
has seemingly reincarnated (sans
function keys) as the 800XL, which
boasts a host of valuable features, is
priced right, and represents to EG's
editors the best home computer at
anywhere near its cost.

Not that the new machine is flaw-
less. But if asked to recommend a
home computer that is ideal for gam-
ers, has sufficient power for pro-
grammers, is solidly built and beau-
tifully finished, we'd sing the praises
of the 800XL. (As an aside, stay clear
of the 600XL. It has neither the mem-
ory nor the video output of its superior
stablemate.)

Of course, we recognize that many
readers might vehemently argue for
the C-64, the 800XL's closest com-
petitor. It's currently more popular,
and everybody and their uncle is writ-
ing programs for it, but this writer
strongly believes the 800XL to be su-
perior in virtually every respect.

That said, let's start our tour of the
800XL with the keyboard, which is still
a subject of debate among Atari fans
everywhere. Although it feels different
the 800's, it's not necessarily better.

The touch is a little tighter and more
heavily sprung, but proficient typists
will find it an effortless adjustment,
even if they've spent much time on the
800. Best of all, it doesn't feel cheap,
loose, and bouncy like many of its
competitors. While not in the IBM PC
league, it's about as good as a vintage
Apple and considering the price that's
some achievement.

As mentioned, a "HELP" key has
been added but none of our game
software used this function, so we
don't really know how well this works.
The "RESET" key, which used to per-
form a "warm boot", has been rede-
fined to "cold boot" or "system reset"

the machine. As a result, some ex-
perimentation is called for. (In other
words if you're programming, don't
reset without saving the material first
or it probably will be gone for good.)
This function can be of benefit to the
gamer, since it removes the burden of
constantly reaching behind the ma-
chine and fumbling for the on/off
switch to reset.

Another difference between the
800 and the 800XL is the loss of two
joystick ports and the right cartridge
slot. While we realize that few quartets
ever play games, some software was
written to accommodate such a con-
figuration. The ever-popular AA.U.LE.

The Atari 800XL, while not flawless,

is ideal for gamers, has sufficient

power for programmers and is solidly built.

80 Electronic Games

By HENRY B. COHEN

can only be played by two on the XL,
with the computer handling the differ-
ence. This is not the best of all worlds,
nor does the represent upwards com-
patibility. The right cartridge slot will
be missed primarily by programmers
who used to put non-Atari published
utility packages into it. Since these fea-
tures were rarely used by our readers,
few people will actually miss them.

The centrally-located and readily
accessible cartridge slot is a double-
edged sword. It's easy to get at, but it's
a bit tricky fitting some cartridges into
it. We prefer the old system which
offered a higher degree of protection
for the cartridge, easier installation
and most important, turned the power
off when the "trap door" was opened.

For those who frequently change car-
tridges, the new arrangement means
much fumbling to get at the rear
mounted on/off switch, which should
be thrown every time a cartridge is
changed.

Perhaps the most significant de-
parture from the past is the XL operat-
ing system. This is computer jargon for
the program that 'keeps house', but it
impacts the user directly, sometimes
right between the eyes.

When Atari changed its operating
system many programs became un-
bpotable. The fault is not Atari's but is
a by-product of the creativity of pro-
grammers who broke Atari's stringent
rules and used "tricks" to achieve var-
ious ends. The new system does not

accommodate these programming ex-
cursions, instead sending an error
message to the operator. In other
words, it quits. To make matters
worse, the system in the 600 and
800XL is a bit more refined than in the
1200XL

For the past year Atari loyalists have
rightfully been screaming their heads
off about this predictable problem
which could have been avoided had
Atari only built in 800 emulation. Un-
fortunately, they didn't but instead
came up with a dynamic duo of
"Translator" diskettes (priced at
$9.95) that can be booted into the
computer on power-up, allowing the
machine to operate about 80% of the
400/800 disk software extant. In
engineering terms this solution is any-
thing but "elegant", but it does work.
The emulation stops at the disk level,
so that cartridge and cassette loading
is not effected. For now, or possibly
forever, if you own numerous ROM
carts or cassette programs you're out
of luck. The translators come in heavy-
duty and industrial strength and
should handle almost any problem the
user may encounter. An obviously su-
perior approach would have been to
write the instructions into ROM
(memory contained within the hard-
ware) and make them user-
switchable.

Atari BASIC is now contained in
ROM, so that the machine normally
boots ready for programming. This is
certainly a welcome change as it saves
users the cost of a cartridge (about
$60.00 list) and BASIC is necessary for
many adventure and educational
games. But a far greater number of
games do not require BASIC and to
disable it the OPTION button must be
held down during the entire loading
process, according to Atari. Our expe-
rience indicates that a quick hit to get
you started is usually all that's needed.
Perhaps a DIP switch hidden un-
derneath the cabinet would have done

Electronic Games 81

TEST LAB

the trick, and it would certainly have
overcome most of our criticisms of an
otherwise superb machine.

Atari computers have always fea-
tured superior graphics, and the XL
line is no exception. Alphanumerics
(letters and numbers) are better
formed and easier to read than on vir-
tually any other 40-column machine,
and the RF (TV) signals are exemplary.
Hooked up to a good TV set it's hard to
tell the picture from that of a monitor.

One esthetic, if not downright prac-
tical, touch is the use of connectors
(jacks) for all wiring leading into or out
of the computer. This allows a much
"clearer" installation than previously.

When the new XL line was in-
troduced a good deal of praise was
heaped on Atari for finally providing
an expansion bus. In the old days of
the 800 you had two options. One was
to reconfigure the internals of the ma-
chine through specialty cards, the
other was to replace certain chips,
(integrated circuits) and draw signals
from the joystick connectors. The bus
does away with the need to make in-
ternal changes and brings all necessary
signal lines outside to a single loca-
tion. (This is a matter of personal pref-
erence, as some people like to have all
working components purring cheer-
fully away, safely housed within a sin-
gle package, while others prefer the
freedom of external card slots.)

Actually it was probably more a matter
of reducing cost than anything else,
but the bus is there for "them that
wants" and maybe it's a better
mousetrap after all.

A nifty feature of the new XL's
is the self-test (diagnostic) routine
This program is used by holding down
the OPTION key on power-up, or by

SOME THINGS LOST
IN TRANSLATION

During the course of preparing this
article we loaded a number of ROM
cart and disk-based programs. While
the 'Translator" certainly solved the
disk problems, the 400/800 cartridge
version of Demon Attack was un-
bootable. Given that we began with
20 cartridges, and that six were man-
ufactured by Atari, this 5% failure rate
isn't too bad, but we expect those
with larger game collections, es-
pecially of third- party software, to
have a problem.

typing BYE at the BASIC "READY"
prompt. It allows the user to test up to
three key functions of the computer.
There's a memory test, an audio-visual
test and a keyboard test. The audio-
visual test is cute, as it paints notes on
the screen and plays them to you —
shades of "Close Encounters." The
keyboard test proves that what you
strike is what you'll get.

Atari 800XL and friends.

Documentation for getting the
computer up and running is excellent,
and like Alan Alda says, will have you
going in minutes if not seconds. But if
you want to learn BASIC or merely a
good deal about the computer itself,
you're going to have to buy a book or
two on the subject. Remember that
the dialect furnished is ATARI BASIC
so don't run out and learn MBASIC. It
won't work.

Is the 800XL is a competent game
player? It's the equal of the old 800,
but can be a bit more difficult to use if
you need the translator diskettes or
have to hold down the OPTION but-
ton forever. Although rated at 64K
there is no more memory in the new
machine than in the old 48K 800. The
difference is in the rating system,
which used to exclude RAM that only
the computer could access. Today all
RAM is included in the final statistic.
With BASIC booted you get the same
37,902K (plus or minus) of user space
as always.

Frankly, for gamers the 800 is a
slightly better bet, as all the old pro-
grams will run on it without effort. But
as these same programs are upgraded
the XL will come into its own. Other
internal improvements bode well for
the future and should enable even bet-
ter entertainment programs to be writ-
ten. With built-in emulation this ma-
chine would be almost perfect at its
street price of $240.00.

With the 800XL Atari is providing a
great deal of computer for the money
and complementary peripherals that
match its overall superb quality.

The 1050 disk drive, to be reviewed
in an upcoming issue, is a good ex-
ample, as are Atari's printers. These
components are a bit more expensive
then some competitors, but they are
quality products built to take it.

And speaking of quality, take a look
at the massive power supplied with the
800XL. It is among the largest we've
seen in capacity and should
power the computer and host of per-
ipherals effortlessly.

If you're considering the purchase
of a moderately-priced home compu-
ter, the 800XL should be your first
choice. Given Atari's turnaround in
attitude, superb product quality and
value, we can't imagine buying or
recommending anything else.

82 Electronic Games

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IT'S

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By THE GAME DOCTOR

Welcome to the Computer Clinic!

Creeting, silicon survivors, and
goodness, haven't we got a
crowded waiting room? Please, sir,
stop pushing that little boy against, the
window — I'll see you all, I promise!
Well, things are getting a touch out
of hand here, so let's skip the T-shirt
and see if we can do something about
the cause of these hostilities!

Qs / have been an owner of an In-
tellivision system since the unit was
first produced and was greatly dis-
tressed to hear that Mattel was leav-
ing the electronic games field. Will the
group of investors who purchased the
business produce newsoftware forthe
system? Will third party software
companies continue to support the
Intellivision ?

(Thomas Lynch, Yonkers, NY)

A" As a viable system, with contin-
ued software support, the Intellivision
is a dead issue, barring a rise from the
grave. But hey, you got plenty of good
years out of the thing, and third-party
software will almost certainly continue
at its present rate: nearly nonexistent.
Move along, brothers, wider hori-
zons await you!

Q: / read in EG that Coleco's AD AAA
was going to get a disk drive. I was
going to buy a Commodore-64. Can
ADAM's drive play everything the C-
64 can?

(Allen McClue, "The Video Wiz",
Wichita, KS)

As I really think you should know by
now that it's rare enough for two
pieces of hardware from the same

Coleco's Adam computer.

company to be compatible — just ask
owners of VIC 20 and C-64 systems —
without expecting products from in-
dependent manufacturers to work in
sync. Ah, hope springs eternal. . .

In any case, disk-based software for
the ADAM is still rare, while C-64 soft-
ware is exploding. Several companies,
including Sirius and Sierra, have pro-
duced Data Storage format software,
however, which may be converted for
ADAM's floppy disk drive.

Qs / have a few questions concerning
memory and programming expertise.
Considering games such as Millipede.
Calaga and Sinistar, what would be
the average memory today of a coin-

op arcade game?

Secondly, how does Atari manage

to cram so much information (Robot-

ron r Centipede) into a16K cartridge?

(Brian S. Johnson, Chicago, IL)

As Average memory on modern
coin-ops varies greatly (though the
games you mention aren't exactly new
and require anywhere from 32 to
64K). Further, it's very important to
realize that the amount of "K" a game
possesses is not necessarily correlated
to its eventual quality. If two writers
are given books to write and both have
100 pages to tell the story, one may
emerge chock full of characters, sus-
pense and plot, while the second au-

84 Electronic Games

thor may fill his pages with mundane
plots and two-dimensional pro-
tagonist. Although there are technical
RAMifications to memory capacity
(the machine's ability to sim-
ultaneously and independently ma-
nipulate a multitude of characters, for
example), the fact is that the memory
size is just like a painter's canvas. Large
or small, it's what goes into the paint-
ing that makes the real difference.

Q&A QUICKIES: Frank James of St.
Albans, NY, wonders when Coleco will
be making an adapter for Atari 5200
games. Don't hold your breath, Frank
. . . Reg Gallant of the Great White
North wonders why the same game
can be 32K on disk but only 16K on
cassette. Good question, boy-o!
Actually, it takes 16K to operate the
drive, or DOS, but it sure is a lot quick-
er, no?. . . To all those folks inquiring
into the health of the 5200, 1 hate to be
the one to have to tell you, but . . .
will you have a seat? Nurse Angela?
Could you get these folks some water
and a mild sedative! I'm afraid. . .the
5200 is a dead issue. Yes, the worst
fears of 5200 owners have come to
pass. But there should be 5200 soft-
ware filling up the pipeline for the next
six months regardless. . .Yes, John

Animator Don Bluth and friends.

Morrett, the Don Bluth you saw listed
as animation meister for the film
"Xanadu" is the self-same creator of
Dragon's Lair, Space Ace r several Dis-
ney films and his own full-length an-
imation film, "The Secret of NIMH"...
Elie Isha, come on down! That C-V
Football game you've been waiting for
is out! Alas, you have to use the "im-
proved" controllers to play it, sigh. . .
To the Zappa (Tom Simmons), it's
true, the Intellivision II has built-in

voice capability! Get 'em while you
can. Who knows, by the time you read
this, the units may be given away free
with rolls of film . . . Meanwhile, Gregg
Black of Santa Barbara, CA wonders
why his spanking-new ADAM (con-
verted from the ColecoVision via Ex-
pansion Module #3) doesn't have an
expansion port for a monitor when his
TV reception is so awful! The answer
is: when you run the ADAM off your
CV, the CV becomes the sole medium
which can be run through a CRT.
Thanks for sounding the alert! By the
way, EG is back on a monthly track, for
the benefit of Gregg and the many
others who wondered. Thanks, folks.
We were the first magazine to cover
electronic gaming exclusively, and
now we're the only publication "still
standing." That's because we've nev-
er forgotten that this is a constantly
changing field, and you have to
change with it to survive. I also think
EG has kept faith with you — and you
have more than returned the favor.

Okay, enough with the getting out
the handkerchiefs. See you all back
here next month, and remember to
keep those cards and letters coming in
— and don't let your game gremlins
get wet!

Do you have an adventure that you haven't been able to solve? Help rs here! Adventure Helpers
publishes complete, comprehensive hint booklets with detailed maps included for games like:
Zork {I, II or III), Enchanter, Sorcerer, Infidel, Planetfall, Starcross. Witness, Deadline, Sus-
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Electronic Games 85

By JOYCE WORLEY

Moving Color On A LCD Screen!

SPITBALL SPARKY

Nintendo/$39.95

They said it couldn't be done. . .but
here it is! For years, it was considered
impossible to have a moving object in
color on an LCD screen. Barriers like
that are just meant to be overcome in
the world of high technology, and
Nintendo's SuperColor games prove
that color graphics on an LCD are
possible — with a little ingenuity.

Spitball Sparky is a wall-bashing
contest with a new twist. Sparky has a
honker on him that makes Jimmy
Durante's nose look small. By position-
ing Sparky under a ball, he literally
blows it toward the wall of blocks.
Then when it rebounds, Sparky keeps
the ball in play by using his proud pro-
boscis to shoot it back into the air.

When Spitball Sparky sneezes away
the first row of blocks, another wall
takes its place, until Sparky misses
three balls and the game ends.

Wall bashing has long been a favor-
ite sport of electronic arcaders.
Although there have been many at-
tempts to reduce the game to pocket-
size, the results have usually been dis-
mal because of the lack of color to
brighten up the playfield. This hand-
some handheld has overcome the
problem. Sparky, the big-nosed
athlete, occupies a purple field, and

86 Electronic Games

bands of color fill the screen over his
head. This is, of course, how the magic
is done. It's all an illusion created by
clever overlays. But the result is a col-
orful field that enhances the contest.
Game A is the standard version,
with rules familiar to everyone who's
ever played one of these Pong-

tmcu
SuperColor

\f»ttt»«ill \i»«llK>

• •

ooo

inspired games. Game B is more
challenging, since some blocks must
be hit twice to eliminate them from the
screen. Gamers have to use strategy to
decide which block to blow away first,
then move Sparky into position to
catch the rebounding ball. It starts out
easy enough for a novice, but speeds
up as the game goes on.

Spitball Sparky is packed in a slim,
silver-toned pocket cabinet that looks
like a million dollars. Combine this
sleek cabinet with the high-skill, color-
ful on-screen action, and the result is
one of the most attractive pocket ac-
tion games available.

SPITBALL SPARKY (NINTENDO)

SPITBALL SPARKY:
HOW IT PLAYS

Choose Game A or B, then use the
switch on the right to move Sparky left
and right on-screen. When Sparky is
directly under the ball, use the shooter
button to fire it up toward the wall of
blocks. Sparky cannot hold the ball on
his nose, and must blow it away im-
mediately after catching it or it will
drop to the ground and break. Three
losses, and Sparky is out of the game.
Bashing blocks scores points accord-
ing to their color, and when 300 points
are tallied, all misses are cancelled.

Spitball Sparky is also a clock and
alarm, and is powered by two LR44
button batteries.

RUNAWAY (GAKKEN)

RUNAWAY

Cakken/about $30

The arcader stars in a prison camp
escape in this pocket wonder from
Gakken. The on-screen protagonist
should be sleeping in his prison cell,
but when the guard turns his back
there's just barely time to beat a quick
retreat — if the gamer is fast enough
to stay ahead of the search beams and
avoid the prowling patrols.

The adventure begins when all the
jailbirds are lying asleep in their bunks.
The control buttons move the convict
from his cot across the prison yard. At
the wall, landing three blows with his
hammer busts him out of captivity and
wins the game.

It would all be simple if pesky
guards, some with dogs, weren't busi-
ly patrolling through the night. Worst
of all, there's that beam of light con-
stantly combing the yard. Get caught
in the glare and it's all over, and three
such losses end the game.

It's actually an easy contest, so no
experienced game player will have
much difficulty in hopping his escapee
from point to point, avoiding those
beams of light and the roving guards.
The movement is straight-forward and
uncomplicated, and it's all a matter of
timing each leap and hiding in the sha-
dows from the searchlight.

What makes this game special is the
graphic treatment of the spotlight as it
swings over the prison yard. The light
beams cut a path of golden glare,
moving back and forth across the inky
black enclosure, making this one of the
prettiest, most dramatic-looking mini-
ature playfields in the pocket-game
field.

Runaway will never in any award for
being the most difficult game in town.
But it belongs in every collector's
cabinet, because of the innovative use

of simple ingredients to produce one
of the best graphic displays seen to
date in a single-screen LCD game.

RUNAWAY:
HOW IT PLAYS

Select Game A (easiest) or Game B,
then use the right and left button con-
trollers to hop the prisoner from point
to point, forward or backward. Then
use the left button to hit the fence with
the hammer. Three strikes and you're
out in Game A. Game B requires five
hits of the sledgehammer to bust the
escapee out of the prison camp.

Runaway also functions as a clock
an alarm and uses two LR44 but-
ton batteries for power.

SNOW WHITE

Inventa/ $14.95

The wicked queen has captured
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
There's no way to help unless some
Prince Charming comes along to res-
cue them all and remove the
evil curse placed on the
princess.

The prince gallops
to the
scene, then
must cross
a gauntlet
of raining
weapons to
reach each dwarf
and ferry him

back to a safe grassy knoll. It
takes seven hair-raising trips to save
them all, then it's back once again for
the princess.

But as every one who read the story
knows, the princess fell into a deep
coma after eating a poisoned apple
given to her by the queen. The prince
must remove four of these deadly
fruits before he can approach Snow
White.

The right and left buttons move the
prince back and forth across the
screen, as he dodges spears and knives
thrown by the evil queen. After all
seven dwarfs have been removed, the
princess appears in the queen's house
surrounded by the four poisoned ap-
ples, and the prince must move these
away one by one, in order to finally
free the maiden.

The moving objects are all black
line drawings against the white back-
drop of the screen. Snow White's
prison-cottage, the mountain and the
queen's castle are all painted right
onto the glass in green, gold and red,
to add spots of color to what would
otherwise be an overly-sparse field.

There haven't been many pocket
games designed especially for little
girls. Inventa's Sleeping Beauty was
the first in this line of fairy-tale inspired
diversions. Snow White uses the same
type of animation and control as that
game, to create an easy-play contest
with special appeal for the ladies of all
ages. G

SNOW WHITE:
HOW IT PLAYS

The left and right buttons move
Prince Charming across the screen to
where the dwarf stands, then touch-
ing the right button again makes the
prince take the dwarf's hand to lead
him back to the safe knoll. Move all
seven dwarfs to make the princess
appear, then remove all the apples in
order to free the lady.

Snow White is also a clock and
alarm, and operates on button cell
batteries.

Electronic Games 87

Premier
issue ^^
on sale now!

Pick it up at your favorite
newsstand. Or use the handy order
form to get your copy delivered by mail

It's mind-bending! Thought-
provoking! Pun for the whole
family! It's TODAY'S TRTVIA
and it's brought to you by the
publishers of Video and
Electronic Games Magazines,
people who really know home
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is 100% original, packed with
brain-teasers you've never
seen before in any other place!
Take up the challenge today!

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I dont want to miss out! Send me a copy of the premier issue of
TODAY'S TRIVIA right away. Enclosed is my payment of $ 1 .95 plus
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Interaction between the readers and editors of Electronic Games helps make this a
better magazine. The more we here at EG know about who you are and what you want
to read, the better we can satisfy your needs and desires. That's why we run a Reader Poll
in every single issue of this magazine. Rest assured that even though we protect the
anonymity of every respondent to our survey, the editor personally reads each and every
ballot received. And of course, this is also your ballot for casting your vote for the most
popular videogames, computer game programs and coin-op arcade machines.

Please return this poll sheet — or a photocopy, if you prefer to keep your Electronic
Games in perfect condition — to: Electronic Games, 460 West 34th Street, 20th Floor,
New York, NY 10001.

SEX AND AGE:

□ Male □ Female

Age_

HOUSEHOLD INCOME:

Q Under $5000 □ $5000-9999

P $10,000- 14,999

□ $15,000- 19,999

Q $20,000- 24,999 Q $25,000+

MARITAL STATUS:

□ Single □ Married

NUMBER OF CHILDREN
IN HOUSEHOLD:

AGES:

□ 2 and Under □ 3-5

□ 6-11 □ 12-17

Please rate each game theme
from 1 (little interest) to 10 (great interest)

Science Fiction Fantasy Mystery

Sports Millitary Financial

Please rate your interest in the following
game categories from 1 (don't like) to 10 (enjoy tremendously):

Action

Strategy

Adventure

Educational

Sports

Entertainments

Please rate your enjoyment of the following
regular features from 1 (don't like) to 10 (enjoy tremendously):

Switch On!

Hotline

Reader Replay

Q&A

Inside Gaming

Programmable Parade-
Games Library

Insert Coin Here

Stand-Alone Scene

In Control

Strategy Session

Test Lab-
Games of the Month

Players Guide

Computer Gaming Section-

My favorite article in this issue of EG was:

The subject which I would most enjoy reading about in a future issue of EC

is:

NAME OF GAME

SYSTEM

My favorite videogame cartridges are:

1._
2.,
3..

My favorite microcomputer games are:

1..

2..

3;.

My favorite coin-op games are:

Electronic Games 89

THE PLAYERS GUIDE
TO GAMING
MICROCOMPUTERS

Our December magazine-within-a-
magazine is a hard-hitting report on the
leading microcomputers from a gamer's
perspective. If you're ready to pick your
first micro — or just upgrading what you
already have — here's the information
you need to make this difficult buying
decision.

GAME OF THE MONTH:
MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE

The intriguing new action -adventure
from Parker Brothers gets the star treat-
ment next issue. You'll read what the
game critics are saying, meet designer
Robert Jaeger and get some score-build-
ing strategy tips.

ENTERTAINMENT

SOFTWARE —

THE NEW WAY TO PLAY

There's more than one way to enjoy
your computer. Publishers are introduc-

ing a slew of entertainment titles which
are redefining leisure time software. Find
out about the many fascinating programs
in this hot category in the next EG.

GIFTS FOR GAMERS

It's holiday time again, which means it's
time for everyone to start thinking about
the presents they'd most like to give and
receive. Once again, EG presents a

photo-packed compendium of great gift
ideas which are sure to gladden the heart
of any electronic gamer.

SHOPPING FOR DISK DRIVES

Want to boost the capabilities of your
Atari computer by adding a disk drive?
Our top techie tells you what's on the
market and, more importantly, how to
get the best drive for the buck.

There'll be plenty of other exciting

articles and features of interest to

arcaders, plus these regular columns:

* Passport to Adventure

* Q*A

* Inside Gaming

* Arcade America

* Software Showcase

* Programmable Parade

• Switch On!

• New Products

• Test Lab

• Readers Replay

• EG Hotline

• Games Library

it Stand-Alone Scene
it Playing It Smart
if In Control
it Strategy Session
it Insert Coin Here
• Articles of War

90 Electronic Games

Ml the adventure of an
authentic WWII air battle.
rhis specially designed
cabinet comes equipped
/vith two steering col-
jmns, music and sound
effects. Choose from
Dne-to-one combat,
:eam maneuvers, or solo
nission. Steer the fighter i
^lane to victory by fir-
ng on enemy planes and I
loating mines. Rely on j
/our arsenal of bombs I
o disarm the ship be- I
ow. Once a ship sinks I
/ou can wear your I
wings proudly! J

SPY HUNTER

ake the wheel, step on the gas and
irepare for a high-speed espionage
idventure. Shift into high-gear and
ace against the clock. Accumulate j
nileage and increase your arsenal /
>f weapons. Beware of deadly /
memies: They have many dis- /
juises. Bally Midway's ARTIFI- /
:iAL ARTIST sound system is /
eyed to follow the fast pace /
>f the game. Fully integrated /
jame play, music and gra- /
»hics all add up to an /
fxciting video driving ex- /
jerience. /

Wailable in sit-down or /
jpright models. /

Position your eight-way joystick and man
your firing button— Gaplus is on the attack!
They are a colony of killer outer space
insects . . . and their sting is lethal. Gaplus ap-
pears on the screen in different forms and
flight patterns. Zero in on the Queen and fire
in rapid succession. She is the keeper. Accu-
mulate bonus points while playing the chal-
lenging stage. This is a continually changing
high energy game which will provide all the
thrill your players are looking for.

ti/uiu/ MIDWAY

One sure way to
lose a game forever

is to win it

The trouble with
most games?

Just when you're
good enough to win, the
challenge is gone. And
a fun game becomes
a boring game.

Oh, by the way,

with WizType,™ you'll

learn to type this

fastfastfast.

A game that
stays one step
ahead of you.

When you win
WizType,™ you're not
going to get bored.

Because, game
after game you can turn
up the challenge. And
then have the fun of
beating The Wizard of
Id's characters on the
next level.

- words a minute,-
yyou choose! Now, isn't
^> that what you need to

operate your ycompute^
xx fastfastfast?

SIERRA

WizType is a trademark of Sierra On -Line, Inc.

What's more, Wiz-
Type™ is fun. It challenges
all ten fingers to zap the
Spirit with ani-
mated pictures
and sound.

Or to race
with Bung,^jl\
the jester, ^S^-
from line
to line. In fact,
you can even
put in your
own words to
foul up your friends.

Is it the best typing

tutor? Or a nearly

perfect game?

You decide.

WizType™ is a

challenge every step

of the way, so you

won't have to worry

about another game

packing it in.

The Wizard
ofld's

Available on Apple II Scries; 1 Atari Home Computers*
Commodore 64|" and IBM PC* & PCjr?

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Full text of "Electronic Games - Volume 02 Number 16 (1984-11)(Reese Communications)(US)"

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